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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The Bold, Independent Woman Of Today and the “Good” Men and Boys in Her Life: A Sampling of Mainstream Media Representations. By Peter Allemano

For decades, there has been an abundance of negative portrayals of men and boys in mainstream media, but here and there, especially in recent years, ostensibly “positive” portrayals have also been presented of exemplary men and good little boys who devote themselves to fulfilling females’ wishes and expectations. Although we cannot help but notice the “good” male’s existence (in movies, for example), we nevertheless pay little attention to him as an individual. Such representations of the “good” male do merit our attention, because upon examination, his psychological mindset is peculiar and ought to perplex us. We need to ask some hard questions about this representation. How does the “good” male image influence our attitudes toward the male sex in general? What does it teach boys about their futures, in adulthood? One unusual recent mainstream movie challenges the prevailing “good” male image and strongly suggests that there exists a far better and more realistic way to affirm the male sex’s best qualities.

From New Male Studies: An International Journal - Vol. 1, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 31-51.

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The Workplace Gender Equality Agency once again 'finds' wage discrimination without evidence

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) has once again appeared to 'find' wage discrimination without supporting evidence. We have covered this issue previously here.

Thankfully this time around Graduate Careers Australia, the research body that each year compiles statistics on the starting salaries of university graduates, has spoken up about the distortion of its research by the WGEA (see SMH story below).

The myth that women are paid less than men for the same work is so entrenched in our culture that we regularly have to challenge media reports that promote it.

A recent example is Stephanie Peatling's article titled "Equality? The 64-day question" in the Sun Herald on September 2nd 2012. In this article she incorrectly claimed that, "On average, men earn 17.5 per cent more than women in comparable jobs."

After a letter to the editor went unpublished we complained to the Australian Press Council which resulted in a prominent correction (page 2) being published in the October 28th edition of the paper and on the Sun Herald website.

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Father knows best as single dads tackle the other glass ceiling

Dads' group members Don Crinson (left) with son Merlin and James Vincent with daughter Ashley. Photo: James Boddington

Charles Areni was shopping alone in a city department store between Monday meetings when he realised he was being watched.

His three-year-old daughter Jacqueline was running low on underwear and he had stopped in to buy her a few more pairs.

Areni, a single father, looked over his shoulder as the security guard approached to ask what he was doing in the children's section.

''He asked me, 'Don't you have a job?', and I said, 'Yes I do! Is there a problem?' somewhat angrily as I became aware what was happening.''

Professor Areni says the security guard could not imagine a father would shop for his child's clothes; instead, he saw a pervert.

''Men in general are assumed to be depraved or likely to be foul in some way,'' the University of Sydney academic said. ''Being a good father, demonstrating the ability to love and nurture children, doesn't allow an escape from this sinister suspicion.''

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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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