An April Fool on NOW
Submitted by Rev. Ken Deemer at Shatter'd Men:
NOW PRESS RELEASE
APRIL 1, 2006
by Kim Gandy, President
I want to inform members of the National Organization for Women and the general public that the feminist movement in the United States
will from now on take a more decidedly balanced view toward equality of the sexes. Henceforth, gone will be the double standards that we
have promulgated in the so-called name of equality.
Some of the major points of our new policy will be:
- We will advocate for shared parenting for fathers and mothers after divorce. We recognize the importance of fathers to the well-
being of children and will no longer advocate legislation that ends up removing fathers from their children's lives.
- We will recognize that the reproductive rights of men are as important as those for women. To this end, we will encourage
legislation against paternity fraud, choice for men as whether to become a father or not, and the introduction of a birth control pill
for men.
- We will encourage federal funding for domestic violence shelters for men, in proportion to their level of victimization. We also
recognize that half of domestic violence cases in this country are the result of women initiating abuse against their intimate
partners, and will no longer condone this abuse. We belive that the Violence Against Women Act should be renamed the Intimate Partners
Violence Act, as it is more gender neutral.
- We will support education reform for boys in school, so that they have an equal chance with girls to succeed in the education system.
It is important that boys are taught in a manner compatible with their learning styles. This may include boy-only classes within
schools, or all-boy schools.
- We will encourage Universities across the nation to create male-friendly environments, including "Men's Studies" programs that
address the issues that boys and men face in society.
- We will support the creation of an Office of Men's Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, in order to complement the
existing Office of Women's Health. We recognize that this is necessary to address the health care gap between men and women.
- We recognize the grossly unequal sacrifices of men in time of war, and will encourage women to share in the burden of defending our
country in the future through an evenhanded approach to the selective service system.
- We will encourage the judicial system to adopt a system of equal conviction and sentencing for both women and men. Gone will be the
days of women getting probation for having sexual relations with underage boys while men committing similar crimes get hard time.
- We will advise the mass media to take a more decidedly male friendly perspective. Depictions of violence against men are as
unacceptable as violence against women, and portrayals of men as inadequate and boorish are ultimately destructive to the family unit
and the moral fiber of society.
- We will start a campaign to raise awareness of the problem of false accusations of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse,
and sexual harassment. We acknowledge that such false allegations not only do a gross disservice to innocent men, but ultimately to
the real victims of these crimes as well, in that the severity of these crimes are diminished in the public eye.
I am sure that there are other good points that could be made, and NOW will welcome input from men's rights advocates on these issues.
You could say that we at NOW have had an epiphany. Perhaps it is just that we have finally realized that the interests of both men
and women are ultimately best served by an evenhanded approach to gender equality.
The sad reality is that many or most of these ideals were part of the "feminism" of the early 1960s. I used to be a proud feminist, and now the word is as offensive to me as the other "f-bomb."
How far the mighty have fallen. ;>)