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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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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Workplace gender equality: call for public comments

The Acting Minister for the Status of Women, Jenny Macklin, today called for public comment to help develop the next stage of the Australian Government’s landmark workplace gender equality reforms.

The introduction of the Workplace Gender Equality Act in November means employers with 100 or more employees will be required from 2014 to provide information against a standard set of gender equality indicators in their workplace.

“The Government is currently consulting on the specific reporting detail contained in the gender equality indicators,” Ms Macklin said.

“We want to make sure the reporting process is both simple and effective.

“We are asking anyone with a special knowledge or interest in workplace gender equality to let us know their priorities.

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EMALE Issue 115 (October 2012)

In this month's issue:

NATIONAL UPDATE: What’s happening across Australia to improve male health & wellbeing?

Queensland update:

MEN’S WELLBEING INC

Victoria update:

Male Health Victoria (MHV)

New South Wales update:

The Men’s Health Forum of New South Wales (MHFNSW)

The Men’s Health Information & Resource Centre

engaging men MEN’S HEALTH, WELLBEING & RELATIONSHIPS TRAINING SEMINAR

Other State updates:

Tasmanian Men's Health and Wellbeing Association (TasMen)

Men’s Health SA (supported by the Australian Institute of Male Health and Studies at the University of South Australia)

The Men’s Advisory Network (M.A.N.) Inc. (Western Australia)

WA MEN’S SHED CONFERENCE

Northern Territory update

news briefs

• Computers lower risk of dementia among elderly
• Pot linked to testicular cancer
• LGBTI Ageing and Aged Care Strategy consultation
• Carers NSW Expression of interest - National Carer Counselling Program

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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