It is always about women’s rights and animals’ rights. When somebody is going to talk about men’s rights? All the things she talks about, I have seen happening to male developers too.
"To be white, or straight, or male, or middle class is to be simultaneously ubiquitious and invisible. You’re everywhere you look, you’re the standard against which everyone else is measured. You’re like water, like air. People will tell you they went to see a “woman doctor” or they will say they went to see “the doctor.” People will tell you they have a “gay colleague” or they’ll tell you about a colleague. A white person will be happy to tell you about a “Black friend,” but when that same person simply mentions a “friend,” everyone will assume the person is white. Any college course that doesn’t have the word “woman” or “gay” or “minority” in its title is a course about men, heterosexuals, and white people. But we call those courses “literature,” “history” or “political science.”"
-- Michael S. Kimmel, in the introduction to the book, “Privilege: A Reader”
Read the first sentence of the ea spouse letter - the author's spouse, who is later identified as a man, is the one who's plight/mistreatment is being discussed. This letter has been generating tons of discussion for close to a decade now. It's not focused on the rights of men as men, but is talking about issues affecting developers in one particular industry (of any/all gender)
He won't because then his "argument" wouldn't work the same way, where the fight for women's equality is equated to the fight for animals rights. Then, his anecdotal evidence of "the same thing happening to males" could not be used to counter what is in any way, shape or form a systemic problem for women in technology. Additionally, his "argument" builds on the false dichotomy of men's/women's rights, whereas men supposedly need a lobby to protect them from feminist advances. The idea is the same as talking about animal rights and somehow decrying the lack of engagement in butchers rights to counter any advances made.
It's a typically deflective move that only serves to steer away from addressing the actual underlying problems (and is very much a symptom of the very same structures). If he were to see this as a question of human rights (which it is, or at the very least ought to be), men's rights wouldn't be separable from women's rights, simply because they fundamentally dissolve in a concern for overall equality.
I just simply think those people who always talk about a specific gender’s rights in fact are helping to create more and more distance between two genders in the tech world.
Dismissing these discussions and ignoring your male privilege actually creates more distance between genders. If we ignore it things will continue idly on their course. Everyone needs to talk about it for any sort of fundamental change.
"To be white, or straight, or male, or middle class is to be simultaneously ubiquitious and invisible. You’re everywhere you look, you’re the standard against which everyone else is measured. You’re like water, like air. People will tell you they went to see a “woman doctor” or they will say they went to see “the doctor.” People will tell you they have a “gay colleague” or they’ll tell you about a colleague. A white person will be happy to tell you about a “Black friend,” but when that same person simply mentions a “friend,” everyone will assume the person is white. Any college course that doesn’t have the word “woman” or “gay” or “minority” in its title is a course about men, heterosexuals, and white people. But we call those courses “literature,” “history” or “political science.”" -- Michael S. Kimmel, in the introduction to the book, “Privilege: A Reader”