Sometimes we need to just say it like it is, and that often means offending people. But the truth has value of its own over any personal preferences, prejudices, and fantasies many possess. The truth is from which source knowledge is derived. It allows us to stay on track and see things for what they are, but only if we are allowed to expose it. This could not have a more profound application than it does to the equality of men and women.
Truth beknown, men just don’t count, either by conservatives or by liberals. Conservatives want to use men as disposable pawns and slaves bound by a traditional role defined by a servitude to women, whereas liberals want to criminalize men and get rid of men altogether. Women are elevated above men (placed on a pedestal and made sacred) in either case. Here in the midst of men being persecuted, with no value other than some use and criminalized as they continue, many are concerned only with masculinity and men being weak and ‘unmasculine’? What a joke! Men of the past defined per their servitude to women got us into this mess! They via tradional fenale bias per their defined masculity not only allowed it to get worse with feminism (chivalry on steroids) but to flourish! It’s men of the present with a degree of self-dignity who are attempting to get us out by an existence defined in their own right.
Let’s not be so concerned about masculinity. The war against men exists whether a male is considered masculine or not. (What about gays? Are they not men too?) We get off track and miss the men’s equality mark by accommodating a mindset subject to a misguided narrative. Men need to have equality to women whether or not they are considered masculine. And women have no business defining manhood, let alone shaming men for not being ‘good enough’ (manly) for them per an existence defined by women. F them! Let men be who they want whether that is considered by others to be masculine or not. Those pursuing this narrative are no less misandric than are feminists in their equivalent persecution of men.
The cry of equality of the sexes has provided a mere front for an effort that continues to implement the opposite. There has been no attempt to acquire equality of the sexes but to increase inequality of men compared to women. Per the term’s definition, equality can not be merely about women but about both sexes. Feminism per its namesake depicts female/feminine rather than anything male/masculine which, matching in practice, expresses total bias favoring women with contempt for men. But due to men’s traditional role and disposable pawn status, with a ‘value’ defined by men’s servitude to women, in reality, achieving equality is more about men than women. Yet, if acknowledged, men are only recognized by those who fly this banner for equality in a male-negative way or not at all. A negative stigma is attached to males that applies to every aspect of our human existence. This has been incorporated as a part of our culture unless it’s for some use men provide for others. Males are shamed into conformity to serve women as disposable pawns and slaves defining their conditional existence by trad/cons and condemned for even being males by feminists/liberals.
Rather than men considered for their own sake, these conditions dictate shaming (per conservative/religious standards) and criminalizing men per feminist/liberal standards. God forbid if men have any exclusive needs of their own to women. Any exclusive conditions based on men’s behalf criminalizes men by either camp’s standards (e.g. the male’s sexuality and sexual needs through which men are persecuted and criminalized).
Men need to be acknowleged for who they are as individuals, a sex, and valued as persons with equal innate value to women, and to an existence defined in their own right. As equals they are not to be placed beneath women as mere disposable pawns and slaves for women and others who want to use and abuse them, with an existence that includes being shamed and forced into conformity (e.g. “Take it like a man,” “Be a ‘real’ man, not a sissy”). This is a form of toxic masculinity (and misandry incorporated) that supports bullying and downright child abuse.
A completely developed male is mentally mature enough to no longer ‘take it’. He breaks from these traditional chains that bind him and lives an existence defined in his own right. He has more self-respect and personal honor than to allow this destiny for himself. He is not sculpted nor labeled whether his manhood is acceptable by others. Value bound by ethical standards, kindness and civility equally applies to both sexes.
Allow men to develop in their own right, to be defined by who they are and want to be rather than by a ‘manhood’ defined by others. This will then correspond to men gaining the equal value, rights and status they have been deprived but are equally entitled to as are women. Regardless of which political faction carries the sex-bigoted mindset in either form applied to men, the truth once exposed is not merely valuable when we can see it but only when we can accept it and implement it as something much better.
Alan Millard continues to be a prominent men’s equality advocate since the early ’80s. He began writing his first book, Equality: A Man’s Claim, in the Spring of 1983. He has been thereafter continually affiliated with the major men’s rights organizations and has contributed many articles, radio, and some television broadcasts. His work includes research conducted through his graduate and doctoral coursework and knowledge acquired through his independent studies and colleague associations as a university professor. He heads the group Men’s Equality on Facebook. He is the author of three books addressing men’s equality concerns. His most recent book, A Flaw From Within: How Women’s Higher Status Defies Equal Justice, Violates Men, and Destroys Society, is available through Amazon.