The mens movement

Yesterday I had booked a day off work to use up the rest of my holiday for the sake of some long weekends and I realised that I’d only half planned it because I had absolutely nothing to do. Carolynne was at work so I went about doing the whole househusbandry thing of cleaning up and in the afternoon I camped out on the sofa to finish my latest read which was ironically on the subject of househusbandry. Well not directly but the book was rated as one of the most influential pieces on the men’s movement. The book is called The myth of male power: Why men are the disposable sex by Warren Farrell. Until a few weeks ago I hadn’t even realised there was a mens movement but after reading about it on the internet I decided to take a closer look.

I’ve always been vaguely aware that there are many examples of bias in the legal system and in society as a whole which works against men’s favour, particularly as fathers although fathers rights is only a small part of the overall issue the book covers many different areas including but not limited to the portrayal of men in the media, the reality of men dominating all of the top 20 most dangerous jobs, the possible causes of the difference in life expectancy with women – which isn’t genetic, the male suicide rate which vastly outstrips that of women’s, the assumption of female innocence in criminal cases and the longer sentences men receive, the 12 female only get out of jail free cards, the unfairness in male-only draft which is compared to genocide given any other population group it could be targeted at.

One thing I found interesting from the start was its prediction over women’s immediate reaction to even the suggestion that men might have cause for a movement and the prediction proved immediately correct with those I discussed it with, although some were more open minded than others. A lot of this however does appear to be the vilification of men by feminists, what Warren Farrell goes on to argue is that the patriarchy is not the product of men intending to oppress women but roles were set in place to aid survival throughout the ages which in modern times have become dysfunctional. While women realised the lack of need for the traditional roles very quickly and recognised the marginalisation it imposed, men are slower to pick up on the fact that their role in society in relation to women and family hasn’t changed for millenia and this isn’t necessarily a positive thing. Hence my reference to househusbandry which to most women isn’t a desirable function of a man – now we’re the ones being kept in our place, at work.

The book was written 15 years ago and I saw some of the points it was arguing are in areas which has seen positive development over the last few years but without politicisation many of these issues will never be tackled and without activism it will never compare with the force of the feminist movement so there is potential that measures being made to protect women will never be put in place to protect men and thereby equality is doomed to failure. This isn’t a criticism of feminism, more a criticism of men who can’t even see how their basic rights are not being defended against women who wish to ride the wave of political feminism to get their way over men. However it is a sad fact that this movement doesn’t get taken seriously by half the population and the other half generally aren’t even aware of it, when you consider Ucas lists a multitude of Women’s studies courses available in the UK and doesn’t even list mens studies as a subject, you can see why this might be the case.

I intend of learning a lot more about this subject, and likewise about the women’s movement – they aren’t mutually exclusive and potentially are crucial to one another’s success, I’m just waiting for my next Amazon order to arrive. I would encourage anyone of both genders to read this book, men to understand more about yourselves and the male condition and for women to to understand society from the male point of view because it’s not as glorious as it might seem, it might even help your relationships with men work a lot better.