http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=353

Fathers, the Left and Spitting in the Wind

By Glenn Sacks

You’re all just pissin'; in the wind/You don't know it but you are. And there ain't nothin' like a friend/Who can tell you you're just pissin' in the wind.

---Neil Young, from Ambulance Blues

Because feminism is such a driving force in the political left, it is very difficult to get liberals and leftists to listen to our issues. When you say “fathers’ rights” they hear “male patriarchy,” even though “fathers’ rights” is simply an attempt to protect children’s relationships with their fathers and to bring some equity to the system.

Much of the left’s political strength comes from the labor unions and the African-American community. Yet the left is schizophrenic here, contending that blue collar men and black men are victims of rapacious capitalism, etc., until the moment that they have a child support obligation, upon which time they immediately morph into highflying “deadbeat dads” who stiff their kids and shaft their oppressed ex-wives.

The left wrings its hands–appropriately–over layoffs, givebacks and wage cuts, but completely forgets this when it comes to the financial obligations courts place upon fathers. The working man and the black man are oppressed, they note, yet at the same time are part of the privileged male class which rules over the oppressed female class.

I agree with some but not all traditionally ‘left’ views. As a general rule, I’m more or less with the left on issues such as labor unions, race, climate change/global warming, gay rights, and others.

But trying to talk sense into the left on gender issues is often like spitting in the wind. I was reminded of this recently when one of my readers–who understands my work far better than most–wrote a letter to the leftwing web publication Salon asking them to take a hard, fair look at fathers’ issues. (His letter comes in the context of the controversy over feminist blogger Amanda Marcotte [who was recently ousted as blogger-in-chief for John Edwards].) Here it is:

Salon: Write about the Fathers' Rights Movement. Write about Glenn Sacks

One of Amanda's favorite whipping boys in the Fathers' Rights Movement.

She says the people in this movement are out for one thing: to reduce their child support. She says they are batterers. She says they abandoned their families. She says they are misogynists. She says they are liars. She says they are bitter used up men.

One of the best spokesman for fathers is Glenn Sacks (from who I lifted some of the paragraphs below). Amanda states the Sacks is a conservative, and hateful. I find Sacks to be progressive liberal, and very fair to his opponents.

Is Amanda right? Is Sacks a conservative? Are Fathers' Rights Groups misogynists?

The California National Organization for Women recently issued a 95-page report called Disorder in the Courts: Mothers and Their Allies Take on the Family Law System, in which they warn “the fathers’ rights movement has been gaining strength and legitimacy. Fatherhood groups are well-funded, well-organized and publicly supported through conservative mouthpieces in the media.” In the report, many prominent figures in the Feminist Family Law Movement (FFLM) call for a “mothers’ rights movement” to block the rising fatherhood movement.

The FFLM insists that false accusers and parental alienators are inventions of the fatherhood movement, and asserts that judges need more “training” so they can better recognize the veracity of women’s abuse claims when no conventional evidence is presented. FFLM luminary Lundy Bancroft, author of When Dad Hurts Mom: Helping Your Children Heal the Wounds of Witnessing Abuse, has written extensively on how courts should identify batterers in this manner. Bancroft, a leading voice in PBS’s Breaking the Silence, penned an article called “Making a Mothers’ Movement” for the California NOW report. He explains:

“Batterers are known for often being unusually appealing superficially, and sexual abusers are similarly often people who are identified as especially ‘good with children’…They may be professionally successful or socially popular, and may be involved in charitable or civic activities that make them appear outstandingly kind and responsible. Victims of both kinds of abuse face disbelief because ‘he’s just not the type.’”

In fact, Bancroft explains, dad often treats the child he sexually abuses very well, and as his favorite child.

Newsweek explains:

“Family-court judges often look favorably on the alleged abuser because he seems more willing to share custody than the accuser–who is hell-bent on keeping the father away from the child.”

Salon, maybe Amanda, NOW, and the Feminist Family Law Movement are right. And maybe they are wrong, and it is the Fathers' Rights Movement that is right. Maybe they are all full of it.

Isn't there a series of articles there? Isn't this the sort of issue relevant to your readers that a progressive liberal magazine needs to take up?

-- a father

This column was originally published in Mr Sacks' blog, and was republished in Mens News Daily, March 15, 2007.