Special Report: The Trouble With MenArticle by Adam Dudding The article starts out ok, and I think the author genuinely means to be sympathetic toward men. Unfortunately, it soon veers off into misconceptions and winds up being just another “let’s blame men for _______” article. I’ll hit some of the highlights.  *Disclaimer* I am American through and through, and I wouldn’t have even known this was about Kiwi men if the article didn’t explicitly point it out. I know nothing of Kiwi men. I’m saying this relates to us all, Kiwi or not, male or not. 

Count the heads, says economist Paul Callister, and it’s all too obvious that New Zealand men are increasingly going missing from the education system, missing from families, missing from certain areas of the workforce and literally missing due to unnecessarily early death.

 

Some of our most lethal problems can be blamed on our evolutionary heritage, says University of Canterbury psychology professor Garth Fletcher. Since our distant hunter-gatherer past, men have always taken greater risks with their physical safety than women, in the hope of gaining social status and impressing a potential mate.

 Hmm…I always thought that our hunter-gatherer male ancestors took the greater risks with their physical safety so that the tribe could eat and have skins and sinews and bones and stuff. I had no idea it was all about strutting at the local mall. What was I thinking? So the human male is like a giant peacock. Good to know. Social status very likely played a part, but it’s not the same thing as playing chicken. The point had to be made, though, else how could Mr. Dudding go on about fast-driving, risk-taking, hard-drinking Kiwi men?  

In the mid-1980s a time of radical economic change the annual male suicide rate in New Zealand leapt from 15 per 100,000 of population to 29, and stayed there through the 1990s; over the same period, the female rate held steady at six per 100,000.

 

Actually, says Fletcher, you’d expect male suicide rates to rise faster than women’s at such times, because of the greater importance men place on status; depression and suicide are characteristic male responses to loss of that status.

 Oh, yes, I’m sure it’s because men have “lost status” that their suicide rate doubled for that 15-year span. I wonder if it could have anything to do with the fact that more and more men were being cut off from their families and going to jail for defaulting on their child-support? Which support, I might add, was based on their incomes while employed. What happens when these men get downsized out of their jobs? Do they get a government program to re-train them? Hell no. They get accused of working under the table and being deadbeats, purposely keeping money from their children out of a sense of petty revenge.  Tell me, if a child is only allowed to see its father for a very limited time, enforced by the government, who is the one with the opportunity to alienate it from its father? (Hint: It’s the one who qualifies for public assistance and gets primary custody in the majority of cases because everyone knows that people with boobies are nurturers and never abuse their kids).  

Not quite. Some men were taking on caregiving roles, but seldom fulltime, and what stood out for Callister was a rather different trend, one which was being spotted throughout the West: as men dropped out of paid work they also tended to drop out of family life. “When men lose their jobs, marriages can split up.”

 

State support for women raising children on their own, plus a growing intolerance of violence by men towards their partners, bolstered that trend. (Meanwhile, a different set of high-achieving men tended to end up with high-achieving partners, enjoying their double income and putting their children in paid childcare.)

 Probably had nothing to do with the fact that women as a whole tend to “marry-up”. If he’s suddenly not earning more than she is, he winds up looking for a new place to live. Yeah, it’s probably that all those unemployed men, no doubt due to loss of status, started spontaneously beating their wives. (The parenthetical point about high-achieving men winding up with high-achieving partners is interesting, too. Notice the women still aren’t “marrying-down”. ) 

In an influential 1996 essay, the Economist magazine took an apocalyptic, if stereotypical, view: “Consider a neighbourhood in which most working-age women are not in paid jobs. This may conjure up a picture of tidy homes, children at play, and gossip. Now think of a neighbourhood in which most men are jobless. The picture is more sinister. Areas of male idleness are considered, and often are, places of deterioration, disorder, and danger.”

 What the hell? Places where people sit around and do nothing generally are “places of deterioration, disorder, and danger”; that much is true. But it holds true for both sexes. There are some women who keep a tidy house, raise the kids, run the errands, and show affection to their husbands, I’m sure. Some very very few women.  Have you taken a walk through the local Wal-Mart lately? If there was ever a place that needed Spandex Police, that would be it. The aisles are crammed with fat women, often screeching at their children and their men, pushing shopping carts full of cake and chips and ice cream, and wearing clothing that shows off way too much of their anatomy. I’m sorry, but imagining a neighborhood where “most working-age women are not in paid jobs” just conjures a picture for me of Oprah-watching, Starbucks-drinking, online flirting, housework-eschewing harpies. Even the thin ones.  Most of the men I know take their responsibilities very seriously. If they are staying at home taking care of the kids and the chores while she’s earning the income, they’re doing their damnedest to be the best stay-at-home-dad there is. I know there are exceptions, and they’re the ones who get all the press, but they are far from the majority.  

The kind of low-skill manual jobs with which a man could easily support his family in the 1950s were now badly paid or non-existent, replaced with service sector jobs, “and they don’t want some tattooed guy serving coffee; they want a pretty young woman”, says Callister.

 LMAO! Sexist much? 

The trouble is this, says Fletcher: There are young working-class men who, for whatever reason, won’t go to university and won’t get qualifications, and there are young working-class women who are much more likely to do so and get a higher paying job.

 “For whatever reason…” Hmm…could it be that universities cater to women and push liberal, feminist agendas? I read an article recently that said that Women’s Studies is greatly losing popularity as a major. Know why? It’s permeated every course at this point. You can’t NOT get women’s studies. Let’s see, he could go to school and learn about what an oppressor he is while listening to his female friends complain about their thug boyfriends, or he could train as a mechanic and avoid the whole thing. What a difficult choice. There’s some more to the article, but I’ve had my say. It’s good that there are articles like this being published; it’s more than we had before and at least tries to explain why men have the status in society that they do. We need to keep going in this direction, and bring the truth to the mainstream. With feminism dictating the law of the land, and how that law is interpreted and enforced, we have an uphill battle. But I have to believe that eventually people will wake up and actually look at the world around them, and follow the evidence to its logical conclusion.  I just hope it isn’t too late.

13 Responses to “Special Report: The Trouble With Men, Article by Adam Dudding”

1. julie Says:
   

   Kelly, I love your attempt at this.

   I think we do have big cultural differences between NZ and America. And I think that is why NZ won’t accept overseas studies.

   I wish you could understand how this man is one of our finest MRM men.

   But then this article has upset other overseas men on AM too. It takes so much effort just to get the money to do research for males in NZ.

   And the most of the people here really do want to challenge the past. This country really was, “Once were warriors”. And in some parts it still is.

   Sorry, but I just have to stick up for this man. Carry on.

   March 31st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
2. bachelor tom Says:
   

   *sigh* Yes it’s all men’s fault isn’t it?

   Why do these kinds of articles ignore the tremendous record of men’s successes? Who invented universities, assembly line clothing production, coffee harvesting, air-conditioned malls…?

   The article is correct in pointing out that working class men have borne the brunt of feminist changes, mostly to the benefit of middle class women.

   April 1st, 2008 at 6:29 am
3. julie Says:
   

   Bachelor Tom,

   One day we are going to have to move from this excuse, “sigh, Yes, it is all men’s fault isn’t it?”

   No it is not anyone’s fault. What do you think people will say about our time in 1000 years? I am hoping by then, they will be able to be critical and learn from it without making it into a gender war.

   But I will add the missing pieces that have absolutely nothing to do with the report to help men feel better.

   Additions:

   Mothers in NZ are abusive to their children.
   Women in NZ are just as abusive as men.
   Both men and women can be found punching each other up in the streets, at parties and amongst families.
   Some woman go for weapons and some don’t.
   Many young men have been raised by terrible sick in the head mothers.

   PS, I know that men have been subjected to abuse from feminists in the past. So I should be more understanding. But sooner or later all men will have to negotiate to move forward.

   April 1st, 2008 at 9:55 am
4. bachelor tom Says:
   

   Julie, the mainstream media is full of stuff like this, we’re not even close to hearing a balanced discussion of gender issues. The unofficial alliance of feminists and marketers ensures that we continue getting propaganda rather than honest debate.

   Neither men nor women have a monopoly on victimhood, in fact victim politics is getting very old. Sadly, most people seem to prefer comfortable lies to uncomfortable truths, it’s human nature I guess.

   April 2nd, 2008 at 5:22 am
5. Mike Says:
   

   There’s no “negotiation” with members of a movement that’s declared war on men. I think an online friend of mine summed up everything nicely:

   “As I told a feminist of my acquaintance, “Fifty years ago, you and yours declared war on men- ALL men. We are finally beginning to catch on, and, for what it is worth, war is OUR Game.”

   Think about it.

   April 3rd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
6. julie Says:
   

   Sure, Bachelor Tom, I hear you.

   But it is not like this in NZ. Our parliament is full of men and women sticking up for men.

   The MRA representatives in the past were men who have been hurt because they couldn’t control their wives.

   The politicians could not touch their concerns. They were abusive to everyone and are barred from heaps of offices and trusts and community events. It has taken good men not wanting to control women nor anti feminists as in women’s work to step up to make changes.

   Gosh, a married man is a great help and married men are starting to stand up. A man who won custody is a man who will be listened to. Not a man who hates feminists because he lost an FC battle.

   Our media has changed, our Universities have changed. And it will continue to change.

   But it is MEN’S day. ALL of men. ALL Men’s concerns are relevant. Not just men who are anti feminists.

   April 3rd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
7. julie Says:
   

   I don’t want people to think I am a bitch and that I am against anti feminist men. I see the work groups do to fight the Government’s radical moves and I participate in holding them back where I can.

   But as for the men’s movement, I am pleased with a lot of the work that groups do.

   Last night I spent some time with a father who came to NZ recently because his wife came here with his daughter. He spoke of suicide and things he wanted to do that are not going to be allowed regarding CS. I don’t want to see fathers commit suicide and referred him on to those who can help him.

   Today I spent some time around the work with youth. Groups have pushed for our young men who are doing apprenticeships and leaving after a year or 2 or 3 (it is a 4 year thing) to obtain the rights to hold on to what they have done for several years so they can pick it up when they feel like it. A new law has been made for them.

   There is much work that goes on. Very highly skilled professionals are working on male youth and suicide. We have the most suicides with males happening between the age of 17 and 24.

   Police and groups are working with street boys. We have many living under the bridges.

   There are a number of groups trying to work with fathers to get them ready for the equal parenting that men’s groups want. We have a lot of fathers struggling with this and a lot that are happy for the women to take care of the children. But when the law comes out they are going to have to be ready.

   I guess my work and many groups I work with are of the lower class. The rich and the middle class are going to change a lot of things for the lower class.

   I do feel a bit out of touch with anti feminists sites sometimes.

   April 4th, 2008 at 1:08 am
8. Mike Says:
   

   You probably are something of a bitch, Julie, but that’s OK. I don’t think I’ve met a woman yet that didn’t have a bitch in her - and I don’t think I’ve met a man yet that didn’t have a bastard in him, including myself, either. I suppose I could think of rare exceptions, but I’d have to power-scour my memory

   Here in the USA, Rome is burning, and the whole feminist agenda is just part, but not the whole, of it. Splitting apart the family is right at the core, it seems, of the destruction of this country.

   I believe men need women and women need men - it’s a benevolent dependency

   April 4th, 2008 at 11:31 am
9. julie Says:
   

   Thanx Mike. Nicely put.

   April 4th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
10. Flint's Gunner Says:
    

    “I don’t want people to think I am a bitch and that I am against anti feminist men.”

    Yeah, too late.

    I’ve had a bellyfull of your flavor of Finger Wagging, thanks.

    April 5th, 2008 at 6:25 am
11. julie Says:
    

    Flint’s Gunner says,

    ****“I don’t want people to think I am a bitch and that I am against anti feminist men.”

    Yeah, too late.

    I’ve had a bellyfull of your flavor of Finger Wagging, thanks.****

    Hehehe. It had to be this way. At least you wrote something productive instead of abusive.

    I have a feeling things are going to get explosive soon between the two sides. A break looks to be in order.

    April 5th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
12. Flint's Gunner Says:
    

    “I have a feeling things are going to get explosive soon between the two sides. A break looks to be in order.”

    Sounds good to me! Any sign the rampant misandy I see on all sides will be dissipating soon? Cuz I’d like a break, and a girlfriend who can be trusted.

    April 6th, 2008 at 5:39 am
13. free man Says:
    

    The trouble with men is that they have turned into total wimps for one reason. You guessed it. Sex. That’s it. Men are not men anymore. They are little boys you have no manhood and they let women walk all over them. Women are to blame for a lot of things but men are just as much to blame for letting it happen. Western women don’t deserve ANYTHING from a man. They deserve to be alone and miserable with their cats for what they have done to the western world. They are the most unfair, miserable, whining, obnoxious whores on the face of the planet. Let’s face it. Most women are prostitutes because they use sex to gain materialistic possessions. Period. End of story.

    April 13th, 2008 at 7:19 pm

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