When it comes to gender violence, male victims have far fewer support services to turn to in their time of need
Sexism’s complex. It can be by men against women or vice versa. It may also be by men or women against their own sex. Stereotypes from past patriarchy remain.
Feminism has far to go. Abuse of females is systemic, especially in poor nations. Yet feminism as a growth industry induces anti-male prejudice. Men may not be the top dogs, rhetoric implies.
Men’s violence often reflects their powerlessness. Men who are poor, inarticulate or with addiction issues are more violent. The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics for instance, notes rates of serious domestic violence are far higher in Sydney’s poorer suburbs (a national trend).
Findings domestic violence is equally serious in gay, lesbian and straight unions show sexism of men against women is not a common key. Chronic media portrayal of men as brutes mocks self-esteem of teenage boys.
A third of domestic violence victims are male, often a target of mothers or stepfathers. An Australian female dies each week by domestic violence, a male every ten days. Male victims get far less support services. Female culprits usually get lower sentences, based on self-defence, post-natal depression and hope of less recidivism. Yet crime statistics show general violence by women has soared when compared with men.
There’s ongoing debate over strategic allegations of domestic violence in child custody cases and how to make family law and mediation fairer. A feminist mantra of “my body, my choice” makes helpless the man facing years of child support after casual sex. I know a man who was suicidal for weeks as his wife had an abortion against his will. He had no rights to have her attend urgent mediation.
False dowry and violence cases are a racket in India. Moves by some in the Indian diaspora to criminalize demands for dowry should probably be shelved to avoid like cases here. All financial support by a wife or her side to a marriage can already be noted for rulings on alimony and property. Our police are serious about violence to women.
Rape of men in prison is a scandalously neglected issue. That it is male on male violence is no excuse. Over 90 per cent of prisoners are male.
It’s a sign of hopelessness that the rate of suicide among Australian men is three times more than with women.
Men walk a tightrope. Strain to be an alpha male induces the best and worst in men.They feel pressure to excel at sports and keep a tough facade, socially and in crisis.
Basic human rights are clearly not a solid reality for either gender.
Females can change males. If males would change females, they’re chauvinists.
What’s the price of confused male identity? In 2008, Canadian, Tim McLean got stabbed in a full bus. Everyone else fled. The attacker then decapitated the victim and ate bits of his body including eyes. Arguably if it had been 50 years earlier, other men on the bus would have rallied instantly.
Men in female led fields face much discrimination due to their“incorrect”beliefs, and fear of paedophilia. Touch phobia in schools may have gone too far and restricts even female teachers.Cross cultural studies such as Violence and Touch Derivation in Adolescents (Tiffany Field, University of Miami 2009) find children lacking physical affection by carers make more violent adults.
We now have far less male teachers, especially in primary school, despite proven value of male models for boys. Boys taught by women attract the ADHD label more (and in general three to four times more than girls) despite implications for self-esteem and prescription of addictive drugs.Imagine the outcry if it were reversed.
With growing evidence feminine interest skews education, Mary Cumock Cook, head of the British University Admissions Scheme, advocates it be adapted for boys. There’s like calls across Europe. Australia is yet to address boy’s declining results. English requirements are slowly diluting subjects boys once excelled at. I personally noted a Year 12 physics assignment was more about essay writing than core concepts.
A youth with an ATAR of 98.6 told me he wrote pro feminist essays to be safe. A 2012 study, found by external audit, perceptions of female teachers on behaviours and attitudes of individual boys affected marks they got(Non-cognitive Skills and Gender Disparities In test Scores and Teacher Assessments. Evidence from Primary School by Christopher Cornwall, University of George et al).
Some Indian banks now offer women-only lower interest rates. In India’s army, female soldiers get more family benefits such as relocations. In Australia, arbitrary sex quotas challenge appointments on merit, hurting male candidates and their families. Given decline in male led industry such as mining and manufacturing, boys are now in a pincer of disadvantage.
Males are more often suffer harsh corporal punishment or torture and do the most back-breaking work in poor nations. They are conscripted or killed wholesale in strategies to “take out the male”.
Given pressure to be key earners, Australian and Indian men may opt for high paying careers above personal choice. Stay-at-home fathers may get feminine sympathy but be suspect to other men.
Men get excluded from “girl talk” but don’t try advocating “boy talk” if men want to be alone. Australia once had a ridiculous number of male-only clubs.They were outlawed but a dearth of female-only groups are now allowed. Sometimes we need the company and help of just our own sex, male or female. And arguably we should have government agencies for men’s affairs, not just women’s.
Prostate cancer is as serious as breast cancer but still gets less publicity. When male health issues get attention, there’s often subtle exploitation, such as mental health targeting. Australian psychiatrist, Patrick Mc Gory, piloted drugging of young men for Psychosis Risk Syndrome (the mental illness when you don’t have one). It was excluded in the long list of mental illnesses in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual V but that text does not clearly allow for gender distinctions in its dubious list of behaviours for ADHD, though boys sit still less.
Basic human rights are yet to be a solid reality for either gender.
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