Aren't men already privileged? And eight other things people say first.

Question 1

Aren't men already privileged?

Accepted Answer

At the top, largely yes. The objection compares the man in the boardroom with the woman beside him. The finding here compares the man in a prison cell with nobody, because nobody counts him. Both things are true at once. Men hold most senior political and corporate positions, and men are also the large majority of prisoners, workplace deaths, suicides and rough sleepers. An average across a population conceals both ends of it, and a mandate is not awarded on averages.

Question 2

Isn't this just men's rights activism?

Accepted Answer

The test is what a thing asks for. This campaign asks statistics agencies to count men and asks the UN to assign an existing 2004 acknowledgement to somebody. It does not ask for anything to be taken from women. The register on this site publishes every claim it has withdrawn, including ones that would have been useful, and it is checkable in full. That is not a standard the manosphere holds itself to, and it is the only defence worth offering: read it and check it.

Question 3

Would a UN for men take money from women?

Accepted Answer

It does not have to and this campaign has never proposed it. The ask is a second column, not a slice of the first. The 2004 agreed conclusions themselves say that resources for work with men and boys must not compromise resources for women and girls. This campaign agrees with that sentence and repeats it. A recognition costs nothing, and an indicator costs the price of collecting a number that is mostly already collected.

Question 4

Aren't men's problems caused by men?

Accepted Answer

Some are, and the same is true of every group. A boy behind in reading at ten chose nothing, and a boy in detention at fourteen is being treated by an institution rather than by himself. The UN's own Global Study says boys face discriminatory treatment in detention due to stereotypical views about male violence. That is a description of how an institution treats a child, not of what the child did. Whether adults are responsible for their own outcomes is a separate argument from whether children are.

Question 5

Why can't men just set up their own organisations?

Accepted Answer

They do, and they are charities. Women's shelters began as charities too, and then machinery was built behind them. Men have the first half and not the second. The difference is not effort. It is that a charity has to raise its budget every year and an entity has a budget line, an indicator, a reporting duty and a place in the system that outlives whoever founded it.

Question 6

Doesn't gender equality already include men?

Accepted Answer

In its wording, yes. In its instruments, the gauge only reads one way. The word gender appears throughout the system, and the entity, the treaty, the commission and the observance days all have women and girls as their subject. This is the most reasonable objection on the page and it is why the campaign talks about machinery rather than language. Neutral words are the right words. They do not by themselves produce a count, a target or an owner.