I should have published this ages ago, but I spaced.
There’s now a new, private forum for progressive bloggers, and also for progressive members of the “progressive blogosphere” community (i.e., comment-writers). It’s called Progressive Bloggers Kicking Ass Forum. It’s intended as a sort of support group, where we prog blog types can share info, advice, supportive vibes, experiences, bitching about trolls, and general high-fiving.
There’s also a sub-forum, moderated by me, for men only – specifically, pro-feminist and feminist men. This is a forum for men to discuss ideas, thoughts and issues pertaining to men and feminism. I don’t know exactly what it’ll be yet; hopefully we’ll discover that as we go along. But it is intended to be a space for discussion without personal attacks.
Men who want to participate should first join PBKA (which requires moderator approval), and once your membership is activated click “usergroups” on the top bar. Then, on the next screen, choose pro-feminist and feminist men forum from the pull down menu, then follow the directions to join!
Although as the moderator I’m most focused on the pro-fem men group, I want to point out that the forum also includes sub-forums for feminist women only, for women of color only, and for white anti-racists only. If you’re interested in any of that, or in progressive blogging in general, please come join us..
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Hmm – curious why the pro-feminist men forum are men only. Why not allow feminist women who are pro-pro-feminist men? Cause women only and women of color only make sense as a way of letting an oppressed group have their own space. Also power dynamics means that is needed to avoid male dominance/ white dominance. But that doesn’t play with feminist men/feminist women. Don’t think a few feminist women dropping by would suddenly silence the men. And the input might be valuable. I’ve seen forums with progressive men discussing feminism without women present. There seemed to be a tendency to hare off in some really hairy and abstract directions.
I think the purpose would be because men have issues that women don’t understand. Men think a lot differently than women (if you didn’t already know that). And to be unbias, I don’t understand women. Not many men do.
Well (to plug my own forum), if you want a feminist/pro-feminist forum on men’s issues that’s open to women as well, there’s always phmt.livejournal.com – not that it doesn’t have its own problems (lack of use, required LiveJournal registration, etc.)
The irony being that when women-only space came up here at Alas!, we were labeled bigots and man-haters.
Go. Figure.
If anyone has ever doubted that men’s whims get catered to and serve as the litmus test of fairness, equity, and rationality, this is a prime example.
Men-only space = good b/c men don’t understand women.
Women-only space = baaaad, because the womens might just get round to talking ’bout the mens. Or not.
I wish you well with this project, but I admit that I really don’t see the point of fora restricted to (pro-)feminist men or white anti-racists. I consider myself to belong to both of these categories, and I can’t imagine any discussion I would want to have with other (pro-)feminist men or white anti-racists from which I would want to exclude women or non-white people. (In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the only situations in my entire life from which I would want to categorically exclude women or non-white people a priori are ones in which I want to be alone.)
It’s probably true that “men have issues that women don’t understand”; it’s also true that men have issues that men don’t understand. It seems to me that any (pro-)feminist discussion of such issues could only be enhanced by the incusion of feminist women’s perspectives.
Fora for women only, or for women of colour only, do make sense to me; I can understand why members of these groups would want spaces in which they wouldn’t have to deal with (among other things) reactionary accusations of ‘man-hating’ or ‘reverse racism’. And I can see how a forum about issues confronting (pro-)feminist men might end up being a men-only forum in practice, if feminist women have other things they’d rather spend their time on. But what’s the point of making it a men-only forum in principle?
I understand and tend to agree with both Q’s, however, I do think it’s fair to point out the bullshit ‘feminist men are unicorns’ forum that was set up on a livejournal with the express intent of debunking male feminism in a really hostile way. Living with several very conscientious male feminists, I think it’s fair to say that while the answer probably isn’t to close up the forum, I doubt such a forum would be free from the same sort of hostility as the men try to discuss, analyze and work through the topics that relate to male feminism.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I very much think that this type of thing could just be a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation, and warrants discussion more than it does accusation.
Well I meant it as a question. Honestly, Barry knows I’m not the shy type. If I intended it as an accusation, I’d phrase it as one. You have actually provided a possible answer; there are particular types of trolls out there who concentrate on feminist/pro-feminist men. Don’t know if excluding the trolls rather excluding women in general might work.