The other gender divide: where men are losing out | guardian.co.uk

The feminist movement is working to tackle misogyny and its many harmful consequences, but should it address misandry, the male equivalent, too? Photograph: Tim Wimborne/Reuters

It's difficult to deny that women suffer more than men as a result of their gender, and highlighting the myriad ways in which this happens is one of the cornerstones of modern feminism – which is currently enjoying a revival in the UK and elsewhere.

But justice isn't a relative concept. If it were, we could suggest we should care less about racism against black people just because Asian people in this country are more likely to be victims of racially-motivated hate crime.

Obviously that's nonsense. But so might be ignoring issues that affect men more severely than women just because women, overall, have it worse.

Delving into the data reveals a surprising array of areas in which men might have the hardest time. Here's six worth thinking about:

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21st century man: lost and anachronistic? (SMH article)

Today's Sydney Morning Herald features an article by Guy Mosel titled 21st century man: lost and anachronistic. Overall it's a very good overview of the various strands of the men's movement. However, it suffers from a couple of problems that most media coverage of men's issues falls into.

Firstly, while highlighting many of the issues that are faced by modern day males, it sometimes presents them as if they are "men's own fault", rather than focusing on the social determinants that give rise to them. For example, men are called "stupid and "lacking ambition." Imagine we called women "stupid and lacking ambition" in the 1950s when females were underperfoming at schools and in the workplace! Imagine we called girls suffering from eating disorders "stupid"! We don't do this for women - we see the larger social structures in place that cause their problems - so there's no reason to do this for men.

By taking this at times hostile and sneering look at the men's movement, the article illustrates very well the challenges faced by men's activists. Media coverage of the women's movement is, on the whole, favourable and sympathetic. When the men's movement actually gets some media coverage (such as Mosel's piece), it is treated quite differently.

Secondly, the article ignores all the wonderful things that men and boys do every day to make the world a better place: fighting bushfires and floods; building the roads, buildings and infrastructures that we all depend upon; mining, logging, deep-sea fishing, long-distance transportation; doing frontline dangerous work in the military, police and security - risking their own health, safety and well-being to help others. Not to mention being great husbands, boyfriends, partners, lovers, mates and mentors, and increasingly being irreplaceable hands-on dads.

And while the article presents the men's movement as a rag-tag mish-mash of disparate views and opinions, the same can easily be said of the women's movement. Both movements are essential to make the world a better place for all people - men, women and children. And both movements are necessarily diverse - as diverse as our societies are.

But these quibbles aside, Mosel must be given credit for taking the time to research and write such an in-depth article about the men's movement - one that will raise these issues with a wider mainstream audience, and hopefully stimulate some much-needed discussion about men and boys and their needs. 

Here's the article...

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If no-one speaks of dreadful things « Karen Woodall

Spring sunshine on a Tuesday morning and I am musing on the emails and letters that I have been receiving over the past few months from mothers, fathers, grandparents and other family members, all on the subject of family separation, some on related issues such as family violence, false allegations and prevention of relationships with children.  Some of these letters are truly heart breaking and they make me feel, in turn, angry, ashamed and bewildered that such hideous stories are being lived out up and down the land without anyone, anywhere, turning a hair.

Those familiar with the fathers rights movement will be familiar with these stories but too many outside of that will either never have heard them or will be easy in their dismissal of them.  The idea that the abuse of men and boys is routine and systematic in our country is an issue that I have heard being laughed at, ridiculed, and simply ignored.

I used to be part of the women’s movement back in the day.  I remember a time when women’s issues were treated in just this same manner.  I went on to be active in that movement for many years, fighting for equality and justice and truth in every aspect of life, including the family.  Never for a minute during that time was it my intention to achieve all of that at the expense of men, I believed and still believe in true equality in which difference is valued and supported. I am deeply ashamed of the way in which the pendulum has swung so far that men and boys are suffering to a truly desperate degree.

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Male Victims of Domestic Violence. By Don Dutton and Katherine White

Intimate partner violence (IPV) or domestic violence (DV) is often framed as a “woman’s issue” or “violence against women” generating the perception of males involved in violent relationships as the aggressor and more capable of inflicting injury or causing harm to their partner. Due to this set of beliefs called the “gender paradigm”, male victims are often met with disbelief or suspicion when they attempt to gain protection from a female partner, or access services. Male victims may also report difficulty in locating services specific to their needs, as help lines or shelters are targeted exclusively towards female victims. These issues and the implications for male victims will be discussed.

From New Male Studies: An International Journal - Vol. 2, Issue 1, 2013, pp. 5-17.

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Male victims of family violence face gap in services and need special consideration: NSW Government report

The NSW Government Legislative Council’s Standing Committee on Social Issues this week released their report on domestic violence trends and issues in NSW: the first ever to acknowledge the existence, needs, barriers to reporting and barriers to accessing support faced by male victims of family violence. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 100,000 men in NSW have experienced violence from their partner.

Greg Andresen, Senior Researcher for the One in Three Campaign said, “This courageous report heralds a new era of gender equity by the NSW Government by finally acknowledging the forgotten one-third of victims of family violence: men and boys.”

The findings of the report include:

• “There was a broad recognition among inquiry participants that women offenders and male victims do exist” (p.218). “Of [reported] victims of domestic assault in 2010, 69.2% were female, while 30.8% were male.” (p.28)

• “Male victims have been much less visible and able to access supports than should be the case” (p.xxiv)

• “The experience of [males]... is equally as bad as that of other victims” (p.xxxii)

• Recognising “the gap in services for male victims and [encouraging] the government to examine how services can most appropriately be provided to male victims of domestic violence” (p.xxxii)

• Identifying males as “in need of special consideration with regard to domestic violence,” along with Aboriginal people, older people, people with disability, and several other population groups (p.89).

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