I am a women and gender studies (WGS) major, and nothing seems to tick me off more than hearing the phrase “Men’s Rights Activists” (MRAs).

If you hadn’t heard, the beginning of February saw a national outcry against a group of MRAs called “Return of Kings.” According to an article by KHOU.com, the group aimed to “return [society] to traditional gender roles.”

Traditional gender roles. That three-word phrase sparked my interest.

When we think “traditional gender roles,” we think of men doing work, women caring for the kids and doing chores in the home. We think of the 1960s, we think of old black-and-white TV shows with housewives preparing a man’s food.

We don’t think about how this was not only a time of oppression for women but for men as well.

Men were expected to be the ones running the home, to be blue-collar workers, and, most importantly, expected to meet the ideal image of masculinity. Just as women were expected to run the home, men were expected to be the breadwinners.

MRAs believe that they can change society by focusing on gender inequalities in terms of what will benefit men in a society.

According to an article on the Huffington Post, a group of MRAs recently petitioned to change the name of “Valentine’s Day” to “False Rape Case Day”.

“Return of Kings” planned a meeting in Rochester, Mich.

Just around our campus, men planned to gather under a leader who made claims that rape should be legalized. His theory was that legalizing rape would make women more cautious and bring down rape statistics.

Daryush Valizadeh, the man behind the meet-ups, published an article on his wesite, rooshv.com, about the issue. When it was originally published, it was not tagged as satire. But since the growing outcry about his claims, he has marked it as satire with an apology.

The meeting was not a rally to make rape legal, as many online were led to believe, but a rally to gather like-minded individuals.  When these people share beliefs that could lead to the harm of women and men around the country, is it really an activism group or a hate group?

The actions of MRAs are almost contradictory and heinous. On one hand they want rape legalized and on the other they want to rename a holiday on the idea that many rape cases are false. According to a Bloomberg article from September of 2014, only two to eight percent of reported rape cases turn out to be false.

Here are the facts:  The “Return of Kings” event banned women and “homosexual” men (I use quotations here as they said homosexual men and “transsexual” men were one in the same, which is not true, and isn’t even the property terminology, but I digress).

MRAs are oppressive to men as well as towards women.  Someone claiming to fight for men’s rights should not be fighting against this small statistic and ignore the problems that homosexual or transgender men face.  

It seems like MRAs are only concerned about the privileges that white heterosexual men in today’s society may lose. By banning certain men from a group, you are dividing rather than unifying.  

To make some kind of change, you have to take a stand.

When someone says they are a “meninist” or a MRA, let them know that they’re hypocritical. Ask them if they defend the rights of all men or only majority men. Ask them if they support male victims of domestic violence or the rights of transgender men using bathrooms in public places.

Make your opinion known and shoot down ignorance.