I personally attended one of the talks given by Prof. Fiamengo on this subject at my University a couple years ago. Before her speech took place (which admittedly was sponsored by a Men's Rights group on campus), assorted members of the Gender Studies department and other activists actively attempted to block her from being able to give her speech, not only through official protests to University administration, but, when that method failed, by seeking to have the men's rights group itself deratified and disbanded, merely to prevent the talk from occurring.

Whether or not I agreed with the principles of the MRA group at the school, the idea that a group of people with a particular ideology would go so far as to advocate the dismantling of a campus organization simply to prevent a critical discussion of their ideology (feminism) from taking place was reprehensible.

Below is an original recounting of my impressions of what the event was like, and the issues surrounding it, from back then. The original post was posted to /r/AskFeminists and titled I went to a talk by an MRA, not because I subscribe to their views, but because I was angry that other students were attempting to prevent her from speaking. Why is such an obviously undemocratic suppression of free thought and speech acceptable?:

---

A number of months ago, Janice Fiamengo, a Prof. of English at the University of Ottawa, gave a talk at my school presented by a newly-formed Men's Issues Awareness Group, and the Canadian Association For Equality (CAFE), a group which is widely regarded as a front for Men's Rights Activists, which many people believe are part of what is essentially a misogynistic hate group. Personally, I haven't looked deep enough into MRAs to have come to a conclusion that that is all they actually are. I'm not saying they AREN'T a hate group or misogynistic, I just haven't looked into them enough yet to make a determination.

Before this speech, I had never even heard of MRAs. And I wasn't really hugely concerned with feminist issues either. But when I found out that someone was coming to my campus to give a talk, and a large number of feminist students were actively attempting to prevent her from even being allowed to speak, simply because they disagreed with her ideas, or because said ideas didn't fit with their ideology, I got angry. These particular students even tried to stop the talk by attempting to de-ratify the Men's Issues group at school by presenting a motion to the student government asserting that the group "perpetuated rape culture and female oppression on campus."

I decided I would attend the talk, not because I subscribed to Prof. Fiamengo's ideas (to be honest, I had no clue what they were at the time), but because I hated the idea of an attempt at the suppression of free speech, particularly in a place (a University campus) where ALL forms of intellectual discussion, no matter how unpopular, should be able to be discussed.

Prof. Fiamengo's talk aimed to question the validity of the theory of the existence of a "rape culture" in society. She claimed that it didn't exist. While this might be an unpopular position to hold, why is it unacceptable for her to express it? Why is it deemed acceptable to make serious attempts to prevent the issue from even being debated?

At the presentation I attended, there was a considerable amount of heckling and jeering, and members of the audience would frequently interject and attempt to interrupt and speak over the Professor in the middle of her speech. Despite being informed that there would be an opportunity to for questions and answers later on. Personally, I found this to be incredibly rude and annoying.

A further, more shocking incident during the presentation, was when the Professor showed footage of a previous speaking engagement at another university, wherein attendees of the talk were loudly berated and verbally abused (called "fucking scum" amongst other unpleasantries), simply because they chose to attend the speech. Police actually had to restrain the protesters, if I recall correctly.

On another occasion, a talk by Prof. Fiamengo on another campus was almost immediately interrupted by protesters who clapped, made noises, blew horns, and did whatever they could to prevent the talk from carrying on. They were successful in interrupting the speech. Footage is linked here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOnuZsXRwTA

I subscribe to the notion of free speech as presented by Noam Chomsky in Manufacturing Consent:

If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don't like. Stalin and Hitler, for example, were dictators in favor of freedom of speech for views they liked only. If you're in favor of freedom of speech, that means you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise.

If you only are in favour of freedom of speech for views you agree with, or that fit your ideology, than you're not actually in favour of free speech. Furthermore, the best way to test the validity of a position or idea is through free and open intellectual discussion. Not by suppression of unpopular ideas.

I'm not saying I agree with the idea that rape culture doesn't exist. But if it does exist, then why are certain individuals (often feminists) afraid of even debating the issue? If the theory of a rape culture is valid, then isn't a free, open debate on the subject the best way to prove it, and to completely delegitimize the position of MRAs and people like Prof. Fiamengo who deny its existence, through the sheer force of superior intellectual argumentation?

TL;DR: Why do certain feminists tolerate or even attempt to actively suppress the open discussion of certain topics that don't conform to their ideologies, such as the debate on the existence of rape culture? Why is this deemed acceptable?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskFeminists/comments/27g2du/i_went_to_a_talk_by_an_mra_not_because_i/

---

EDIT: As an aside, I just remembered that /r/AskFeminists is the only subreddit from which I have ever been banned, and that I was banned with zero explanation, nor did I receive any explanation from the moderators when I requested one.

Still, I don't consider myself to be "anti-feminist" or an MRA at all. In fact, the last 3 women I've dated or "hooked up with" were all members of the Gender Studies departments at different schools (one being a gender studies undergrad, another a gender studies Masters Student, and another a professor with a Ph.D in criminology who also teaches gender studies courses within the sociology department.) !