{"id":3456,"date":"2012-05-29T15:26:26","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T22:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=3456"},"modified":"2012-05-31T15:54:22","modified_gmt":"2012-05-31T22:54:22","slug":"proposed-sfu-men%e2%80%99s-centre-met-with-resistance-from-communist-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/05\/29\/proposed-sfu-men%e2%80%99s-centre-met-with-resistance-from-communist-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed SFU men\u2019s centre met with resistance from Communist group"},"content":{"rendered":"

A proposal by the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) to establish a men\u2019s centre at Simon Fraser University (SFU) is being met with resistance. The Young Communist League of Canada has officially spoken out against the idea, saying that men do not face systemic barriers and do not need a safe space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a Women\u2019s Centre on campus,\u201d says Young Communist League of Canada British Columbia provincial treasurer Erin Searle. \u201cIts goal is in part \u2018to struggle against all forms of oppression and demand justice\u2019. Over the years, the Women\u2019s Centre has been a positive space on campus and a force for fighting misogyny and racism. The Women\u2019s Centre is positive because it addresses systemic gender-based barriers facing women in society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Searle says the difference between a women\u2019s centre and a men\u2019s centre is that men do not face systemic gender-based barriers in today\u2019s society. Searle points to inequities in the workplace as an example of this, pointing out that men still make more than women and men still hold a large majority of the provincial legislature and federal parliament.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Simon Fraser Student Society's Jeff McCann (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe SFSS is advancing a confused perspective on the role of both feminism and the student movement,\u201d says Searle.<\/p>\n

But SFSS university relations officer Jeff McCann doesn\u2019t agree. The two see eye on eye on women\u2019s groups being important, but McCann says that women\u2019s groups often point at men on the other side of the issue at hand instead of working with them.<\/p>\n

“What we aim to do with the men\u2019s centre is to\u00a0engage men\u00a0in topics such\u00a0as these, rather than talking around men,\u201d he says. \u201cWomen\u2019s groups will\u00a0benefit from men talking about gender equality, I don’t know how they [The Young Communist League of Canada] miss the positives of that. There will not be any single focus of programming, which is why the centre needs to stand autonomous.”<\/p>\n

McCann says the SFSS has actually received lots of positive support from around North America for the men\u2019s centre. The positive support hasn\u2019t been as publicly vocal as the opposition, which is why it seems like there\u2019s a lot of controversy surrounding the men\u2019s centre. Still, McCann (who hadn\u2019t seen a copy of the press release the Communist League sent out explaining their opposition to the men\u2019s centre until Nexus<\/em> provided him with one) says that there have been some people speaking against it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not realize this amount of controversy would surround the men\u2019s centre,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought that society was at a point to accept and recognize that people face different challenges in life and need support to face those challenges. Men are no different. Having said that, we have had\u00a0large positive support from across North America. The media is really creating its own controversy by up-playing the negative comments.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Camosun College, Elizabeth Morris, the Camosun College Student Society\u2019s women\u2019s director, says she is in support of the centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a humanist,\u201d she says. \u201cI believe in equality and equal opportunity for all people, regardless of how they identify themselves. That being said, if the need is there and the want is legitimate, I strongly endorse the development of a men’s centre.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the Communist League\u2019s press release, McCann says that the sentiments displayed in it exemplify a larger societal problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of the press release, they recognize that men face many issues but don’t think there should be a place for dialogue and community around these issues,\u201d he says. \u201cThat attitude is part of the problem in society. I believe that this place should exist, and that it is nobody\u2019s right to deny men of a service that many experts and students believe to be a valuable idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SFSS says that a men\u2019s centre is a beneficial idea in part because men struggle with issues such as alcoholism and suicide. The Young Communist League of Canada, however, disputes that these problems result from gender and that counselling systems should be put in place instead of a men\u2019s centre.<\/p>\n

Searle says that if the SFSS really wants to help students, it should be focusing its energy and resources elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the SFSS leadership wants to serve its membership it should increase funding to the Women\u2019s Centre or organize campaigns against racism and misogyny,\u201d says Searle.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, McCann hopes that the proposed men\u2019s centre will move forward and feels it\u2019s a great opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t pretend to be an expert on men\u2019s issues or health,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I can create a platform for building community and dialogue amongst men\u00a0about men\u2019s issues.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A proposal by the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) to establish a men\u2019s centre at Simon Fraser University (SFU) is being met with resistance. The Young Communist League of Canada has officially spoken out against the idea, saying that men do not face systemic barriers and do not need a safe space. \u201cThere is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3456"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3478,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3456\/revisions\/3478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}