History Of The Organization
From EqualityForMen.org
Our History
In the Spring of 2008 I found myself in Divorce Court. I have been raised to believe that Justice was Blind, that is to say that my race, religion, gender, education, political affiliation, etc., were not to play a role in the disposition 1 of Justice. I held to that sacred belief, that in a Court of Law objectivity and a careful examination of the facts were all that mattered to the Courts. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
I wish the our Society, and the Courts that serve it, truly metered out Blind Justice. There would be no need for me to have founded EqualityForMen.org, and you would not have felt compelled to come here in the first place. But that is where we are today, on EqualityForMen.org, fighting to defend the rights of Men, Fathers and Dads everywhere.
Having personally experienced the Injustice and Inequality prevalent in our society and our courts, I realized something needed to be done to reverse the trend towards the marginalization 2 of Men, Fathers and Dads in our society today.
A few things dawned on me in the Summer of 2008:
The 1st thing that I realized, is that The Courts are absolutely biased against Men and Fathers. Where is the protection and concern of the courts for Men, Fathers and Dads? We are considered a priori 3 guilty and at fault when facing a Woman in court.
The 2nd thing I realized came from insight that I had gained while obtaining my degree in Neuroscience, I particularly had focused on Gender Differences in the brain. It is a well established fact of Psychology, Social Anthropology, and Neuroscience that real differences exist in the brain (and thus in the behaviors) between Men and Women. Chiefly among those differences, one stands out as particularly relevant to this issue.
"By nature, a man is suspicious, competitive, controlled, defensive and a loner who hides his emotional state to stay in control. For men, becoming emotional is seen as being out of control. Social conditioning reinforces these behaviours in men by teaching them to 'act like a man', 'put on a brave face' and 'boys don't cry'. As a nest-defender, a woman's brain is pre-wired to be open, trusting, co-operative, show vulnerability, reveal emotions and know it's not necessary to stay in control all the time." 4
The Women's movement has been so successful because by their nature they're inclined to "work together" and Men by our nature are inclined to "go at it alone".
So that's when it dawned on me, that the pendulum has swung too far from the center. That an Organization of Men, Fathers and Dads was needed to push the pendulum back to the middle, back to equality and fairness for both sexes. And that I was in a unique position to given my education in Neuroscience (and the understanding of the Genders that came along with it) and my professional background as a computer programmer to do something about it.
In this is how it began. And it is my sincere hope that it will end with a Million+ Men, Fathers and Dads standing up and finding our collective voice, standing up for our equal rights, and we will make the Courts, the Congress, and the World hear us, and push the pendulum back to a more neutral, fair, objective, middle ground for Men, Fathers and Dads everywhere.
So please tell everyone you know about this site, encourage them to come here, to share their personal stories, to join our mailing list, and support the organization in anyway possible.
Together we will be able to accomplish what none of us can do alone.
-Eric (eric@equalityformen.org)
Founder of EqualityForMen.org
Definitions:
1 Disposition: the act or the power of disposing or the state of being disposed: as a: administration , control b: final arrangement : settlement <the disposition of the case> c (1): transfer to the care or possession of another (2): the power of such transferal d: orderly arrangement 2 a: prevailing tendency, mood, or inclination b: temperamental makeup c: the tendency of something to act in a certain manner under given circumstances
2 Marginalization: to relegate to an unimportant or powerless position within a society or group
3 A Priori: a: deductive b: relating to or derived by reasoning from self-evident propositions - compare a posteriori c: presupposed by experience 2 a: being without examination or analysis : presumptive b: formed or conceived beforehand
Sources:
1 "disposition." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008. Merriam-Webster Online. 7 October 2008 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disposition>
2 "marginalize." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008. Merriam-Webster Online. 7 October 2008 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marginalize>
3 "a priori." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008. Merriam-Webster Online. 7 October 2008 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/a priori>
4 Pease, Allan and Barbara. "Why men don't listen and women can't read maps." Pease International Pty Ltd. 2001. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/1949186/Why-Men-Dont-Listen-Women-Cant-Read-Maps>