I was afraid of these answers, hoping that this convention, or the academics that will talk there, are notoriously wrong and In Need for a Clue. But in this case, I disagree.

I think you're mixing here two issues.

Yes, there is patriarchy. And yes, women are the ones that mostly hurt by it. But women are also the ones who enables it, assisting as mediators. And to me, saying and this kind of conventions aren't important is like saying that all men are bad and all women are good. So yes, there's Patriarchy and there are Men, just as there is Feminism and there are Women. Saying that every man is a P7 is wrong, just as not every woman is a feminist.

Edit: And bottom line, we can't understand the effects of patriarchy on women alone, without including the effects of it on men.

I don't know why you're rushing to determine that these kind of conventions and dialogs won't be helpful to get a better understanding and elimination of patriarchy. By understanding better the social construction and understanding of what a man is (read: supposed to be, look like and act like), we'll understand patriarchy, and maybe ourselves and the world, better. If I am a woman, and constructed to be "the other", I'd like to know exactly what I'm facing, who is this kind of person which is supposedly not me that I Can't Be, that Anti-Other.

Women come in all kinds of shapes, men in fewer (I think). However, they're still there. Exposing the stereotypes of what Man and a Woman is and the changes those stereotypes went through can be good, for all (men in the ancient world could and used to cry in public and be open about their emotions, mostly the Romans; it's well documented. Boys in Victorian England were taught not to show any emotion at all, and "stiff upper lip", as far as I know, comes from that age. It's not a coincidence, IMHO, that so much of the fantasy literature that came in the end of and after that era had the basic idea of "you have to go out to and run away in order to escape this").

It is a man's world, and yes, the history of dead white males is what mostly being studies in universities (though in mine, in almost every class there will be at least 1/5 that will be dedicated to women's studies). But by ignoring what a "man" is, we'd do unjust not only to them, but to women as well, because then you basically say that gender and feminism are only matters regarding to women, IMHO. So I suggest to see them not as a bunch of whiners who are ignoring women and feminism (and if they do, no better time and place than these conventions to show them How It Supposed To Be Done and how they can assist making this world a better world), but as partners. We are together on this Earth, and our ways of living are too interwoven to say that men are the great oppressors of this world (maybe the Manly Thinking, but not men in specific). These conventions aren't supposed to be the place where the Great White Males are gathered up and congratulating each other for dominating the world.

(I'm apologizing for typos. Still not feeling very well).

Health~ma, Sox, and ~ma in general to those who need it.

thank you so much Shir

The adventures of Spotted Dog and The Enforcer!

LOVE.

Maybe it's more like the Romans whining that the people they conquered just don't understand.

Completely free of the actual covo, this from Andi made me think of Spike.

"I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it."

I won't generalize about all men, but ime most guys who want to talk about men's studies are crybaby sore loser knobwanks whose fathers probably have a good reason to be tough on them, what with the whole knobwank thing. There are guys who research masculinity and whatever, but they're usually not the ones going all Orly Taitz.

Any and all kinda ~ma you need, Sox.

I won't generalize about all men, but ime most guys who want to talk about men's studies are crybaby sore loser knobwanks whose fathers probably have a good reason to be tough on them, what with the whole knobwank thing. There are guys who research masculinity and whatever, but they're usually not the ones going all Orly Taitz.

I just don't understand this.

Almost every man I met who studied Men's studies showed how patriarchy did and does wrong to men as well as to women.

These conventions aren't supposed to be the place where the Great White Males are gathered up and congratulating each other for dominating the world.

What Erika said. It maybe shouldn't be that way, but IME it's exactly that. See also Men's Rights Associations.

So many tons of ~ma to you, Sox. Health~ma, just-stress~ma, coping and calmness~ma. Anything you need, as much as you need.

The thing that bugs me about the men's studies programs is that feminists have been saying, just about since the dawn of feminism, that it's not just about women; that patriarchy hurts men too. I started reading Gloria Steinem at seventeen, and ran out and read everyone she'd read and everyone she recommended, and I know that's a theme that feminist writers have been going back to over and over and over. With sympathy and empathy and careful scrutiny of how our society functions and what the cost of patriarchal gender essentialism is to boys and men as well as to women and girls, how it constrains and diminishes everyone.

That's been crystal clear since the beginning of feminism, and it was a large, loud part of mainstream feminist discourse by the 70s when the Steinem crowd and Ms. Magazine rose to prominence. And it's just a little crazymaking for feminists to see, once every few years just like clockwork, another group of men who haven't listened to anything but the media's selective filter of What Feminism Says pop up and say, "Hey, you know what, patriarchy hurts us too! We should look at that in some depth!"