In 2004, Victoria University of Wellington Students'
Association (VUWSA) instituted a "Men's Space" -- a room for
men, paralleling the "Women's Space", which has existed for
some years already. This is described as a trial, and it will be apparently
continuing into 2005.
The initiative came from the Maori Students' Association, which has
a Men's Rights Officer, but part of the background is also the fact
that Hannah Collings, the 2004 Women's Rights Officer on the VUWSA Executive
has been sympathetic to Men's Rights. She is supposedly a member of
Act, the right-wing party to which Dr.
Muriel Newman belongs. Dr. Newman is famous in New Zealand for championing
Family Court reform in the interests of justice, fathers and children.
Student newspaper "Salient" on 6 September 2004 reported
VUWSA Vice-President (Welfare) Jennifer Jones as claiming that the Men's
Space "undermines the whole point of the women's room on campus."
This only makes sense if the Women's Space exists as a symbol of, and
to perpetuate, the ideology of Female Supremacism. Female Supremacism
(usually called "Feminism") exerts its power by perpetuating
the myth that women are disadvantaged, compared to men. It is only by
persuading people that women are disadvantaged that women can continue
to enjoy, and increase, their special privileges and their power to
oppress men. |
