ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how men’s rights activists (MRAs) understood and responded to transformations of the welfare state during the 1990s. It describes the relationship between the ideology of MRAs and the broader liberal political discourses of “rights,” “self-reliance,” and “personal responsibility.” Focusing specifically on the period between 1994 and 2000, which covers the two years prior to and four years after the introduction of welfare reform legislation, and drawing on a unique dataset of 1,000 posts taken from a Usenet newsgroup archive, the chapter examines how MRAs responded to increasingly stringent paternity and child support requirements imposed by welfare reform. The men’s rights movement is the collective name for a diverse range of groups and individuals who believe the dignity and rights of men and boys are diminished, threatened, or nonexistent. The United States was slow to develop a welfare state.
