Alcohol and junk food advertising is just not cricket!

My name is Aaron Schultz and I am a 41 year old Father of two boys from Hobart Tasmania. I have had some major concerns for a while now around the high levels of alcohol and fast food promotion in sport and am worried about the effect it has on mine and other people’s children.

I have decided to do something about it.

Recently I started a petition directly targeting Cricket Australia to drop their association with their current Alcohol and Fast Food partners Carlton and United Breweries, Coca Cola and KFC. Advertising Alcohol and Fast Food through sport is just not Cricket!

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St. Francis House: Mentoring Young Men in a Fatherless Society. By Joseph Campo

The centrality of a father or male mentor in the life of a young man is discussed by the director of St. Francis House, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York. A brief description of this home for boys 18 years and older who have come from extremely difficult situations is followed by reflections on the importance of men’s personal commitment to boys, in particular the combination of a male model for young men’s spiritual life.

From New Male Studies: An International Journal - Vol. 2, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 72-77.

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EMALE Issue 117 (December 2012)

In this month's issue:

grey is the new black in workplace dynamics

boys hit by body blues

engaging men national training seminar

art therapy - ahead of its time

13 reasons it’s unlucky to be a male

news briefs

• World Cancer Day 4 February 2013

13 Reasons it is Unlucky to be Male

An abridged version of this article appeared as an op-ed in the Newcastle Herald on November 17, 2012.

November 19 is International Men’s Day: a time to promote male role models; to celebrate men’s contributions to society; to focus on men’s health and wellbeing; to highlight discrimination against males; and to improve gender relations and promote gender equality.

As someone who wants both my son and my daughter to flourish across all areas of life, I am frequently reminded that our society and media do a particularly poor job of highlighting and addressing areas in which males face disadvantage. Thankfully we have women’s offices, ministries and NGOs working tirelessly to improve the areas in which women still fare poorly. This is not the case for men.

We seem to have a cultural blind spot around men and gender politics. When a man has a problem, it is frequently seen as his own fault, whereas women’s problems are more often attributed to others or to society. For example, we hear that men are to blame for their own poor health (“men don’t go to the doctor”), whereas young women’s high levels of eating disorders are blamed upon the cultural pressure to be thin.

The portrayals of men in modern day media are often negative – as violent murderers, wife bashers, sexual abusers, deadbeat dads, and bumbling idiots – even though, in reality, only a small proportion of men act out these roles and behaviours. This compounds the lack of compassion for men’s issues.

Our society often assumes that ‘men have it good’ and only women carry the burden of gender-based disadvantage. The evidence strongly contradicts this. Here are 13 areas in which men and boys need our help. I would ask that you picture an important male in your life as you read them – be it your son, brother, husband, best mate or father. Many thanks to Glen Poole from the Men’s Network in England for the idea for this article.

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Victorian Male Health Conference - important development

The inaugural Victorian Male Health Conference is less than one week away and there has been an important development:   

Unfortunately the Conference has not been able to attract sufficient registrations to make the Gathering financially viable over two days.

Consequently, the Gathering has been reduced to a one day program to be held on Monday 19 November, details of which are attached.  This will still be an action-packed conference, with many of the original presenters still appearing.  It’s a professional development day to be spent with like-minded colleagues.  In addition, one of Australia’s top comedians, Ben Price, is making an appearance right at the beginning with ‘What Price Male Health?’ 

The Committee regrets the need to make these changes, but believes that what they are providing will be great value for both the time and money spent. In fact it may now be more viable for you to attend – less money and less time. What better way to spend International Men’s Day – particularly if you work with men!

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