4. “There are women in Muslim countries who can’t even drive, and you worry about that?”

Fallacies Involved: Red herring, false dichotomy.

This isn’t a contest: if women are being treated horribly in Islamic states, we can feel bad about that, but also call out Galawang Hokage and its ilk. To say that we can’t care about both is to be patently ridiculous, and to say that these inconveniences are “so small” is to be disingenious because why must only women put up with these supposedly small inconveniences solely because they’re women? If even something that small is denied of them, how is that equality, really?

Counterpoint:”That’s why we keep fighting.”

The status quo privileges people in certain ways. Men have the luxury of being lauded for their sexual history instead of castigated, women generally win custody battles more often than men. Most of the time, what appears to be people taking away our rights tend to be people trying to actually level the playing field for everyone. Case in point: why do you think people were up in arms over the “Kasambahay Law?” It sure wasn’t because they had the kasambahay’s best interests at heart, was it?

3. “They’re not asking for equality, they’re asking for special rights! Otherwise, I should be able to punch a woman and not be in trouble over it.”

Fallacies Involved: False equivalence, non sequitur, circular reasoning.

It’s a bit embarrassing, but some men mistake laws protecting women as “special rights” when in reality, it just brings up the women’s rights up to speed with men’s. For instance, in cases of domestic violence, yes, women get hit more than men, so that’s actually the “norm,” as horrific as that sounds.

Counterpoint: “Why regress when you can progress?”

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the MRA is correct that these rights are “special.” You know what that means? You don’t take it away: you give them to everybody instead. Take a step forward, not a step back.

2. “She was asking for it.”

Fallacies Involved: Victim blaming, post hoc ergo propter hoc, hasty generalization.

When we see that nuns also get assaulted, and so do babies, we realize that inasmuch as we should trust in God and lock our car, the real culprit, the real person to blame for any form of assault is the assaulter, not the asaultee.

Counterpoint: “Rapers gonna rape.”

It might sound tongue in cheek, but that’s really all there is to it: clothing is not consent, and an assaulter is the only one who should be held liable for assault, because to assume men can’t control themselves in the face of a little cleavage is an absurd assumption to make about us, and one I personally find difficult to accept being touted as an excuse by MRA’s. Dude, are you really on our side if you concede we’re intemperate pigs?!?

1. “It’s not such a big deal. She should just get over it. I know I did.”

Fallacies Involved: Argument by anecdote, false equivalence, argument from relativity.

People are different, and we cannot possibly imagine what it feels to be viewed as a piece of meat day in and day out even when we’re just wearing a shirt and jeans. Being men, most of us don’t particularly worry about being raped while walking down the street in the middle of the night. Held up, maybe, but women don’t exactly have to strike being held up off their list of worries when walking at night, either.

And yet, in the end, we as a culture have decided that the victim ought to share the blame with the attacker for the victim’s woes, when clearly, that’s not how it works. Only one person committed the crime. It sure as heck wasn’t the victim.

Counterpoint: “No, you get over it.”

For people who are supposedly over it, a lot of these misogynists tend to keep harping on the same issues over and over again. Clearly, they have issues they’re trying to project.

What other bad defenses of misogyny can you cite?

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