Wednesday, January 21, 1998
Men’s issues not thoroughly addressed
GENDER Weak sources fail to adequately convey male stereotypes,
discrimination
By Marc Etienne Angelucci
The Daily Bruin’s recent articles on gender, including those
alleging to represent men’s issues, fail to recognize the voices of
leading men’s rights advocates.
The articles refer to leaders of the feminist movement on the
one hand, but refer only to the comments of unknown male
acquaintances on the other.
One writer did quote the well-informed and fair-minded equity
feminist Christina Sommers. But why didn’t anyone, for instance,
quote Warren Farrel, Ph.D., author of "Myth of Male Power" and "Why
Men Are The Way They Are"? Farrel left the board of directors of
the National Organization for Women in New York City to become one
of the most outspoken and qualified spokespersons for men’s rights,
and certainly deserves mention in any article that purports to
present both sides of the gender battle.
Another article, written by Rowland Nethaway, did raise the
issue of gender inequality in capital punishment. While I commend
Nethaway, I must note that he left out the fact that the penal
system also discriminates against men in overall sentencing, not
just capital punishment, where gender contributes more to the
determination of sentence length than any other discriminatory
variable.
What the articles also fail to mention, and what gender
feminists ignore, is that men’s advocacy is not merely about a few
males who are disgruntled by male-bashing. It is also about a
growing number of men who realize that males, like females, are
harmed by socially-imposed roles that lead to discrimination and
double standards. Playing the strong protector and provider (the
expendable sex) has left a huge gender discrepancy in war
fatalities and injuries throughout history, and males still are the
only ones facing mandatory draft registry. Men have historically
held the "death" jobs as lumberjacks, coal miners, etc., and even
today men make up 60,000 of the yearly 70,000 job-related injuries.
Overall, men are self-destructing at much higher rates than woman
via substance abuse, dropouts, homelessness, suicides and
incarceration.
But again, many feminists continue to ignore and even exaggerate
data. For instance, Naomi Wolff in Ann Landers’s column said that
150,000 girls die yearly of anorexia. The correct figure, according
to the Center for Disease Control, is closer to 100. Wolff has
corrected herself, but only after a skeptical reporter exposed the
3,000-fold exaggeration. If he hadn’t, many feminists would still
be blurting the figure as a fact. And, naturally, they don’t
mention the scores of men who harm themselves with steroids (or
hair transplants and penile enlargements) to fit a media image.
This is not to undermine the feelings of those disgruntled males
quoted in your articles. On the contrary, I agree with them. Men
face bias even on a small-scale, routine basis, such as in auto
insurance rates; on the job based on their hair length or earrings;
in California’s family law courts; or by national TV commercials
suggesting that a man’s car length indicates his penis size.
The Women’s Coalition for Change at the University of Maryland
posted the names of every male student under the heading "These Men
Are Potential Rapists." What should the male students have done?
Well, studies show that women are more likely than men to kill
their kids.
If I were a student there, I would have posted every female
student’s name under the heading, "These Women Might Kill Their
Children." Fair enough?
Men, unfortunately, rarely voice their complaints, mostly
because of ignorance, a desire to appear "PC," or fear of being
shunned by females. This has only prolonged the problems. For
example, National Cancer Institute figures show the government
spends over six times more on breast cancer research than prostate
cancer research, even though roughly the same number die yearly
from each. Not surprisingly, it took a small group of females to
begin lobbying for prostate cancer research on men’s behalf. Men
eventually "got a clue," and Men’s Health Magazine and others are
now taking up the cause.
None of this is to undermine the issues of inequality, rape,
etc. that women have always and still face. Most men’s advocates
seek unity with feminists toward the common goal of equality and
ending harmful stereotypes. But unity requires recognition of the
claims on both sides. And, in my experience, men’s advocates have
fared much better at that than most feminists.
Angelucci is a first-year law student.