My Experience at the First International Men's Conference So Far.

I have been at the men’s conference sponsored by A Voice for Men in Detroit for the past couple of days. It has been quite a delight to meet up with so many like-minded people on men’s issues. I met in person many of my personal heroes including paternity fraud activist Carnell Smith, columnist Barb Kay, author Warren Farrell, and more.

The crowd of what looked to be about two or three hundred people were diverse and ranged from all ages to all ethnic backgrounds. There were more men there but almost as many women it seemed! There were young men attending the conference who quietly came up and asked me to sign books and middle-aged and older who just stopped by and told me they had read my book and felt that it helped them in some way.

I met the young women who call themselves the Honey Badgers who fund-raised enough money to pay their expenses to go to the conference. Many people at the conference had sacrificed a lot to be there whether it was paying their own way, taking time off from work or struggling with physical problems that limited their ability to travel. I was in awe and amazed at the great group of intellectual speakers and the audience who asked questions that were critically thought out and challenging.

My only concern with the conference was the media that was present. It seemed that reporters from Time, MSNBC, GQ, and Vice.com were there. I got an uneasy feeling about a few of them though I suppose their stories could go either way, though I think I know which way to bet. There were a couple of women from Vice.com that we sat with at an appreciation dinner for speakers who seemed very nice but frankly, a bit clueless. The woman writing the story, Alexandra Lynn, said that she could not connect with the issues at the conference stating that she was writing her article in the first person and could not relate as she was from NYC and no one she knew acted this way. The women and men were apparently equal and didn’t have issues. I told her to look outside NYC and realize that there is a bigger world out there. And who knows, if men were interviewed in NYC, they may have a different story. I told her to look at the stats at who pays for things but first person accounts may not take any facts into consideration.

That said, the conference was a huge success, the organizers did the best they could given the circumstances and everyone seemed to be digesting and learning a lot from the detailed and fascinating material being presented on gender politics, domestic violence, misandry in the media and so much more. It was great being in a setting where the Politically Correct did not rule and real information was being discussed.

My husband Glenn and I did interviews for PJTV and hopefully, those will be up at some point!