This Saturday, October 10, Amsterdam will see its first Mannenmars (Men’s March): a group of men who will march from Dam Square to Museumplein. Why? Not to push for the far-right this time, but to “protect women.”
Organiser, Oskar Kroes, is a secondary school teacher who is also active in “men’s work” through his company Wild and Sacred Men.
He came up with the idea of the Men’s March in response to the Dutch porn site, Motherless, which includes images of women being drugged and raped, telling AD “I thought: come on, men, what are we doing? Are we allowing women to be treated like this?”
It’s a noble idea, men should hold other men accountable for their actions towards women. However, it’s the language Kroes uses around the march that is coming under fire.
According to the Men’s March (Mannenmars) website: “It is time for us to become protectors again — providers of safety, instead of threats — and to hold each other accountable for that responsibility.”
Feminist groups applaud the gesture, but question the execution
Speaking with AD, Jip Mars, general director of feminist organisation, Emancipator explains that “We applaud men speaking out about gender-based violence, I really want to emphasise that.”
However, the word “protect” brings an old narrative back to life. “Protecting is close to owning. You protect what is yours,” Mars says. “With the word, you reinforce traditional norms of masculinity, whereas to prevent violence, it is precisely those norms that need to change.”
Indeed, the language does seem to encourage a return to “traditional” roles — which saw women oppressed and prevented from, for example, taking part in marches…
Which as it turns out, is also the case with the Men’s March. Women cannot participate in the march, but they may wait for the men to return from their odyssey on the Museumplein.
As Mars puts it: “As if they were warriors returning from the battlefield. That is an image that makes us think: that is not helpful.”
Mars explains that the initiative further bolsters the idea that men and women should have different roles. “And that is precisely what we disagree with. That is not a feminist narrative.”
Same goals, but with differences
Kroes has responded to feedback from feminist groups such as Emancipator and the Dolle Mina’s, saying that he celebrates the differences between men and women.
As a result of the discussions, Kroes did decide to reduce the emphasis on the protective role of men on the Mannenmars website, however he tells AD: “In men’s work, we actually see that men very often come up with that term. ‘How do you want to be?’ we ask. ‘I want to be a protector,’ they say. That is a deep-seated feeling.”
And what about allowing women to participate in the march? Nee, still not going to happen. “We actually find that a beautiful image, of men and women meeting each other there,” Kroes says. “And we don’t want the majority of the runners to be women. The image really needs to be that men are taking action.”
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