Student wants to start Men's Centre

March 12, 1999

by Sheri Block
the Carillon

A proposed Men¹s Centre is looking for support on campus.

³I¹m just in the beginning stages of getting support for a centre,² said Karry Schmidt, coordinator of the project. ³I would prefer a men¹s centre but I also would be happy with a university centre that would apply to both men and women equally.²

Schmidt¹s interest in the project began when he was writing an essay about the necessity of a women¹s centre. He questioned why there is currently not a men¹s centre and was upset by the response he received.

³The director of the women¹s centre was telling me about the services they offer, and apparently they do a lot of good for the women in the university. I asked her why there isn¹t a men¹s centre, . . . . she said Œthere would never be a men¹s centre because the Owl is a men¹s centre, every bar is a men¹s centre, that kind of made me upset. In fact, places like that aren¹t really a men¹s centre and that sort of stereotypes every male of going to the bar and acting like an idiot.²

³That upset me,² continued Schmidt. ³After I wrote the essay it made me think about trying to set up such a centre. It only made sense.²

Tammy Wagner has been the coordinator of the Women¹s Centre since 1996.

³If they feel there¹s a need for it and they can find support, if it¹s not just a backlash against the women¹s centre, I¹m all in support of it and I think everyone else is too,² she said.

Schmidt says the proposed men¹s centre would offer the same sort of services as the Women¹s Centre and that men do need a place where they can talk.

³You never know what [men] would actually talk about if circumstances were there for them to actually sit down and talk about it. Men do have issues as well, it¹s just that they¹d be different than women¹s issues.²

³There¹s a big stereotype that men are seen to be feminine if they talk about their problems [but] it actually strengthens their masculinity to realize that they do have problems,² said Schmidt. ³Men may feel more comfortable in telling another man their problems,² said Schmidt.

Wagner agrees men should have the same support network, but believes their needs can be met at the current Women¹s Centre, which has been in existence since 1968.

³I¹m in favour of men having support services but I think this support can be met at the Women¹s Centre,² said Wagner. ³I think there¹s still a need for a safe place for women to go.² Student reaction to the proposal is mixed.

³I don¹t know what a men¹s centre would be good for,² said Corey Gebhardt, a 3rd year PAS student. ³I don¹t think anybody would go, that¹s what the Kid¹s Help Phone is for.²

All would be welcome at the men¹s centre, including women.

³One of the big things we¹d support is men and women actively working to achieve equality,² said Schmidt. ³The real vision that we have is to convert the Women¹s Centre into a university centre.²

Schmidt says he has received almost equal support from both men and women because ³[some] women see the Women¹s Centre as being sexist towards men.²

Schmidt believes men are losing their rights.

³The feminists of this age,² said Schmidt, ³have gotten pretty much all that they¹ve asked for politically, now when they fight for things all they are [doing] is taking away more rights from men.²

But Jaime Reban, Education Issues Coordinator, thinks there is no need for a men¹s centre on campus.

³It kind of degrades the many reasons why we need a women¹s centre. It diminishes the problem, the specific issues that women have to deal with as women,² said Reban. ³Men aren¹t fighting for things like pay equity and men on the whole don¹t have to deal with being victims of domestic violence or issues like body image.²

Reban says that men still hold the power.

³It is the white males who have all the power, like in the corporations, They still earn the most money, it¹s women who are in poverty, it¹s women who have to suffer all the different kinds of violence against them. A men¹s centre kind of spits in the face of all those issues and demeans them.²

Schmidt says this is not his intent.

³I¹m not woman-bashing in any way,² said Schmidt. ³The last thing I want to do is hurt women¹s rights, I just want it to be equal.

³I¹m not trying to start up some radical group, I want them to realize that. The centre would not be a place for men to go and bash women.²

 

http://ursu.uregina.ca/~carillon/99.03.11/news/men.html