[UA] Re: [UA][OT] UA unintenionally sexist? (LONG!)

[Timothy Ferguson]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick O'Duffy" <redfern at thehub.com.au>

> > This discussion has just hit upon one of my major sore-spots, and its
> > something that's currently not very tangible, but is slowly starting to
> > emerge in society.  Susan Faludi just put out a book about how a
> > disproportionate amount of American males are beginning to feel
powerless,
> > and yet, can't quit figure out what's making them feel this way.
>
> What's the book called?  Sounds interesting.

"Stiffed"

Frankly, though, as an Australian, you might find more interest in either
Steve Biddulph's "Manhood" or the American Farrell's "The Myth of Male
Power".  Faludi's book is definately about -Americans-.  Farrell's is a bit
wider, and Biddulph is about Australians.  Read the second edition if you
want minimal mythopoetical interpretation.  (I almost have my official
Librarian's Hat, so I need to get this new power "Suggest Similar Book".)

> >  She got
> > raked over the coals about it; men in this country don't even want to
admit
> > its happening.
>
> Maybe it's a cultural thing.  I certainly don't feel powerless; I'm a
white male
> in a society created by white males for the empowerment of white males.
If I
> was richer (I live below the poverty line), I'd be King of the world.

I take it you don't have children, then?  This is one of the main theses in
men's movement books, that the Father is fading fromthe public conciousness
as an admirable role.  It's not a matter of powerlessness in Australia
because we have never been the global hegemonic power.  In Australia there's
more of a defensiveness about the idea that the patriarchy aids all men,
when for some of us, it seems far more likely that the patriarchy is
actually the Old School Tie network, favouring those who go to one of 10
specific high schools and 8 specific universities.

> > Yet, men are four times more likely to succeed at suicide.  Fathers are
less
> > likely to win custody of their children, unless the mother is obviously
> > deranged or psychopathic.  Fathers are treated like pedophiles if they
are
> > openly touchy-feelie with small children.  Men are taught to substitute
love
> > for sex--walk into any strip club and tell me what you see; men paying
to
> > talk to naked women.  True, porn and prostitution is an overly
complicated
> > issue, but I think this is part of it.  Men are expected to go to war
and
> > die--that's how much we value them.  We kill them.
>
> All that stuff is true; no argument.  I think, though, that while men have
> problems, women (as a whole) have bigger ones.

Such a comparison is the "can walk and talk at the same time" argument,
though.

The other big thread in the Australian form of the movement is that boys are
continuing to slide in schools.  Men have been concerned with the stats on
this for over a decade in Oz, but we were ignored until women said "I am a
feminist and I am going to fight for my son."  The great leaders in the Boys
Education debate are women, because men are not taken seriously when they
claim weaknesses, like being raped, being depressed, or feeling that their
gender as a group needs help.

Others, for example that men live only 90% as long as women in those
societies where lifespan is a function of technology, never get attention,
because women never stand up for men in them.  The closest things we have to
remedial projects on male death rates are prostate research and services for
lonely elderly women.  8)

Oh, and Lifeline for the suicidal.



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