Some Mexican men aren't feeling so macho

The men's movement has reached Mexico:

MEXICO CITY — Lorenzo da Firenze and his followers, a group called the Masculine Circle, say the arrival of feminism is making wimps out of the modern Mexican man. They are calling for the men of Mexico City to take to the streets.

On Sunday afternoon dozens — or perhaps thousands — of men will gather in the capital's main plaza to demand their rights in the country that virtually birthed the idea of machismo.

"It's time to stop the belligerent stand women have taken against men," says da Firenze, a 49-year-old author and recording artist, who was born in Italy and came to Mexico as an infant.

... da Firenze insists that men are the victims. "The Feminist Conspiracy" is the title of his latest book, which he hopes will lay the foundation for a movement to reclaim men's rights. Subtitled "Encyclopedia of the Third World War: Women Attack Men," the cover features a series of female figures with the heads of animals, including snakes and alligators.

The group's initial demands are fairly straightforward: they want an international men's day (as women have on March 8), an international men's year (2010 is the preferred choice) and a hospital for men, to attend to male medical problems.

Included in its orthodoxy, spelled out on its Web site, is the belief that erectile dysfunction is an invention of feminists to terrorize men.

"If you don't want more misogyny," warns the group's official hymn, "then little girls, stop attacking us."

A central tenet of the movement is the idea that women abuse men, something Da Firenze, now married, says needs serious study.

"Why are women so quick to (unleash) verbal and psychological violence on men?" he said. "When a woman goes to trial and tells the jury her husband hit her, O.K., what came before that? It's what we would classify as female verbal violence."

Yes, what came before that? Funny.