Google Hangout Interview of Warren Farrell on Boy Crisis Speech at U of Toronto
I’ve been speaking for 42 years and only experienced one protest. That was a handful of protestors outside of Town Hall after Simon & Schuster published The Myth of Male Power (1993). That all changed on Friday. I got some hints of it weeks before my presentation, when I was told that feminists associated with the Socialist Workers Party at the University of Toronto were defacing posters announcing my presentation on Boys to Men: Transforming the Boy Crisis into our Sons’ Opportunities. I soon heard that defacing was replaced by the posters being torn down within two hours of their being put up. Since the organization sponsoring me was putting up a lot of posters in a lot of places, I knew they were well organized. However, the Canadian Association for Equality, the sponsoring organization, put up multiple rounds of posters. They briefed me that in the past, when there was such resistance to one of their speakers, and a demonstration was suggested, the number of protestors showing up was usually somewhere between zero and three. So I was surprised when approximately 100 protestors showed up. I wasn’t bothered by this until they started blocking the door and physically preventing people from entering. The campus police did not have the authority to physically remove the protestors blocking the entranceway. They ultimately called in the Toronto Police. Some twenty police officers came on horseback and bicycle and eventually moved the protestors away from blocking the door.
Media came pouring out of the woodwork, but almost nothing appeared in the press, and what did appear focused only on the conflict. Therefore, I thought I would do a Google Hangout to share the substance of what I addressed at the University of Toronto’s presentation, Boys to Men: Transforming the Boy Crisis into our Sons’ Opportunity on November 16, 2012.
Warren
www.warrenfarrell.com
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Warren…I am ashamed of Toronto. It is the nearest large city to the farm my husband and I own and, so, it is the city I tend to call “home.” But I am less inclined to claim it after reading your account. You are such a good guy and a true voice for sanity. Moreover, I know some of the sacrifices you have made because you wanted or needed to speak out for real equality and just treatment of both sexes. I send you a salute, my friend.
Wendy,
Hearing from you is such a pleasure–I have such respect for you. There are so few people who are aware of those sacrifices, that I am touched by your memory. The demonstrations elicited so much awareness about the extremism of militant feminists and their willingness to physically prevent freedom of speech that it significantly increased of how militant feminism thwarts equality, and how deeply ingrained the universities are in using taxpayer money to prevent real equality.
BTW, Toronto is still one of my favorite cities!
Warren
This is great news for Mens RIghts Activist
Thank you so much for bringing attention to the problems that men face, Dr. Farrell. I can’t tell you how much your writing and lectures mean to me and I hope that this awful protest does not deter you from speaking in the future.
Dr. Farrell,
I bought a ticket to the Toronto event, but was unable to attend because of a last minute schedule change. I am sorry to hear about what happened, and I am sorry to hear that students from my alma mater were less than welcoming. I do hope that I have the opportunity to attend another lecture of yours in this city, but I’m sure there are plenty of reasons to be hesitant to return.
Kevin
Hi warren,
I have enjoyed your material and have always kept you in mind when I hear really angry sounding mra’s. You seem to have a very balanced view of our modern gender problems. This is why the Toronto protest was so shocking.
How do you address the critics like manboobz who say you have extreme views of rape and incest? Do you feel your writings in the past are preventing your message of equality?
R