Thread: Twelve great myths of feminism

Twelve great myths of feminism

Copyright © 2002, 2003 Pip Wilson, WILSON'S ALMANAC http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com
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(We often hear unsubstantiated slanders on males. Most of them are demonstrably false, and not all women believe them, fortunately.
However, they’ve been well propagated by lobbyists for women’s interests over men’s, and have gained wide currency, even among males. It is in men’s interest not to believe that which is incredible.
This list does not denigrate women (quite the contrary – very many women are wonderful, and most of my friends are women), nor seek a return to obsolete gender relations. It applauds both men and women and only challenges unsubstantiated, sexist dogma. – Pip Wilson)


1. Myth: Men are uncaring, and not in touch with their feelings
Fact: Mozart, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Jesus, the Buddha, Martin Luther King, Irving Berlin, John Lennon, Spielberg, Gandhi … one notes how many of the great creative artists and spiritual teachers in human history were male. Very few feminists are present when men compose symphonies, buy flowers for their lovers, take women in labour to hospitals, or cry on pillows. This might explain the feminist error.
Traditionally, men, even with their faults, have mostly shown great love for women and children, often at great sacrifice to themselves. When the ship was sinking, no woman called out “Men and children in the lifeboats first, we’ll go down with the ship!” Male protection of women and children, derided and even denied by feminism, has been valued by women for centuries and is still a character asset sought by women in their partners.


2. Myth: Men aren’t interested in discussing sensitive issues
Fact: When men get together they talk about their health, families, lovers, children, and their feelings about a multitude of things. They discuss their fears and hopes regarding employment, love, health and all aspects of life and death. However, when men are speaking privately together, no feminists (or women) are present to observe.


3. Myth: Women’s health care deserves an even greater proportion of public funding
Fact: In most Western nations, the overwhelming majority of public health dollars go to women’s health, although women have far better health than men (evidence: they live about 10-15 per cent longer). There is abundant research to show that women suffer far less suicide, addiction, alcoholism, injury, violence, stress-related illness – not to mention male-specific diseases, of course. Unreasonably disproportionate amounts of funding, both private and public, go to research and treatment of breast cancer over testicular cancer, and many other areas of women's health over men's needs. The feminist argument is that because women live so much longer than men, they deserve greater health care funding. Words fail me to discuss the arrant and arrogant absurdity of this argument.

4. Myth: Men are more competitive than women
Fact: The fact is, women are at least as competitive as men, though often about different things. Who has not experienced extremely competitive women in the workplace? Often they put men in the shade when it comes to ruthless, competitive behaviour.
Which do you think is the most-played competitive sport in Australia? Is it cricket, football, baseball or basketball? Answer: none of these traditionally male sports. Australia's number one sport is netball, almost exclusively played by women. Observation of a netball game is recommended to ideologues who claim women are not as extremely competitive as men.

5. Myth: Women, and not men, are excluded from society
Fact: It is important to note that feminism is about the politics of exclusion. On many university campuses there are "women's rooms" set up by feminists as places that only females may frequent. On the other hand, there are seldom "men's rooms". Similarly, there is a multitude of public-funded "women's refuges" and virtually no refuges for the opposite sex.
Not one mile from my previous home in Sydney, is a women-only public swimming pool. Imagine the noisy campaign by feminists if that institution only opened its gates to males.
Feminists have been active in establishing women-only clubs, and just as active in closing down any places where men congregate. This imbalance is obviously a feminist version of apartheid, and no fair-minded man or woman could countenance such hypocrisy.
It is remarkably ironic to see women's groups stridently clamouring to close down places where men congregate, while diverting public funds for women-only institutions. That their tactics of exclusion go largely unchallenged speaks volumes of the inordinate power these viragos exert in Western society.
Some people marvel and even snicker at the politics of exclusion practised by feminists, not realising that there is actually method in all this madness, and that it is purposefully enacted to disempower males. I call it "Strategic Disempowerment", a term that I define and discuss at ** Wilson's Almanac free daily ezine | Strategic Disempowerment | Men, mens, mens rights, masculinism, masculism, child support, feminism equality.

6. Myth: Men are responsible for domestic violence
Fact: There is NO excuse for a man hitting a woman. However, a quick Internet search (eg, see Facts and Myths About Domestic Vioence) will reveal a wealth of research showing that most domestic violence is initiated by women, and grossly under-reported by men. Studies show repeatedly that most children who are abused or murdered by a parent, are victims of their mother. Verbal and emotional abuse, as well, are shown to be commonly borne by males.
In the USA, a man is the victim of domestic violence every 14 seconds (from the same source which feminists quote to say that a woman is the victim of domestic violence every 15 seconds -- US National Family Violence Survey (1975, 1985, 1992) by M. Strauss & R. Gelles); Annotated Domestic Violence Bibliography - I strongly recommend skeptics see this extensive bibliography.


7. Myth: If women ran governments, there would be world peace
Fact: Unfalsifiable assertions are generally fairly worthless. This particular assertion is unfalsifiable because it has never happened – a fact blamed by feminists on male power-lust rather than female lack of interest in public service. It is widely recognised now that even where affirmative action is in place, women by and large tend not to choose political candidature. What is known, however, is that the few women who have achieved high office, such as Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meier, and so on, have tended to use warfare and oppression just as readily as some male leaders, and far more aggressively than most. (It might be argued that, proportionately, women leaders are more bellicose than men.) The majority of male political leaders of the world's 190 or so nations have never resorted to warfare despite many conflicting interests.
The well-known scenario in which a woman will sometimes encourage a fist-fight between two men, may be the psychological motivation behind the phenomenon of women giving white feathers (a shaming symbol of cowardice) to non-military men in times of war.
Furthermore, most wars are fought by nations whose leaders have been elected by, and directed by, equal numbers of men and women. (In fact, women form the majority of electors, by a ratio of about 51-49.) It is unreasonable for men to take the blame for decisions made by both men and women.
I note that in the closing months of 2001, I received by email every day very many bloodthirsty articles, cartoons and jokes that basically exhorted the USA to gird its loins for battle. The senders of those emails were more than 70 per cent female. One is reminded of the practice in the first World War, of women handing white feathers to men. The feather was intended as an insult: the receiver was to feel guilty for not offering to sacrifice his (male) life at war. How many men were maimed and killed as a result of this feminine sublimated aggression and irresponsibility?
Are women, on the whole, honourable and non-aggressive human beings? Yes, I believe they are. As with men, however, there are exceptions.

Copyright © 2002 - 2004 Pip Wilson, WILSON'S ALMANAC http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com
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8. Myth: Women in Western nations are discriminated against by men
Fact: In fact, all Western nations afford equal opportunities to women under the law. In many instances, there is even affirmative action, which gives significant advantage to women even when it does not accord with merit or female desire (such as the right to work in poor conditions long accepted by men, eg, coalmines, sawmills, construction, sanitation). There is no affirmative action for men in any areas of male "disadvantage" (eg, nursing, secretarial, etc). Some public institutions, such as family courts, consistently and notoriously discriminate in favour of women. Perhaps if the ratio of women to men in prisons, or who die before their time, were reversed, the feminists would argue that it is women who are being discriminated against.
Virtually all Western nations record that boys lag behind girls academically -- yet in spite of this, many feminists will argue a feminist case in education. In Australia (2003 figures), there are more women engaged in post-graduate university studies than men, yet the feminist lobby continues to allege that females are disadvantaged vis a vis males, and lobby compliant governments for further advantages.


9. Myth: It's desirable for women to raise children without men
Fact: In Western nations, fatherlessness is a more constant common factor among prisoners than education, socio-economic background, race, ethnicity and literacy.


10. Myth: Men have made a mess of human history
Fact: Without men’s efforts, virtually all fields of human endeavour would be much poorer. Men can take most of the credit for the fields of music, visual arts, medicine, architecture, recreation, engineering, construction, literature, science, conflict resolution, public sanitation, agriculture, law and order – virtually everything.
History’s great leaps forward in human health, particularly women’s health (eg safe childbirth; fertility control) have almost all been achieved by men. Almost all charities and social reforms have been male-instigated.
Feminism is much less an ideology or philosophy than a strategy for sectional interests. Undeserved shame has been used as a political weapon by feminism because it weakens the "enemy". Men have much to be proud of and it is in their interests not to succumb to unnecessary feelings of guilt and shame.


11. Myth: Women are better than men at the ‘finer’ things of life
Fact: Men are by far the world’s most influential chefs, gardeners, songwriters, musicians, poets, singers, sculptors, furniture makers, interior designers and decorators, hairdressers, fashion designers, literary critics, calligraphers, painters and so on, and on, and on.
There is a fallacy that has currency not only among feminists but also in the general community, a notion that requires debunking. That is the premise that men have a 'masculine side' and a 'feminine side'.
One often hears that a man who exhibits such characteristics as gentleness, creativity, sensitivity and kindness, is showing his (fictitious) feminine side, or 'in touch' with such an unprovable and poorly defined entity.
This nonsense is as false as it is widespread. The finer characteristics of males have nothing to do with the female sex. They are fully male, and this is much easier to demonstrate than the opposing position; a quality possessed by a male must ipso facto be a male quality.
The fallacy is relatively new, arising with the feminist movement. It represents an attempted expropriation of male qualities by those who have no right to do so. This expropriation has a political basis and helps to remove and debase male identity. All that is male is fully male. For those who oppose male identity to denote is as 'female' is scarcely different from imperialists renaming locations in subjugated countries, or imposing their language on other cultures. Similar dynamics apply, as much of feminist strategy has involved the colonization, disempowerment and identity-theft of males and the proscription of their culture.


12. Myth: Women are interested in love; men basically want only sex
Fact: Women’s reading matter, such as magazines (which enormously outnumber men’s magazines in titles and sales) clearly contains far more on sex than men’s reading matter.
A double standard of sexuality is promoted by feminists for the purpose of 'Strategic Disempowerment': when men show sexual interest it is denigrated and portrayed as beastly and oppressive; when women show it, it is "celebrating women's sexuality" and "getting in touch with our sexuality".
If a man visits a prostitute, he is vile and oppressive. If a woman calls a male sex worker for a home call, she is “a modern, liberated woman attending to her sexual needs and having a bit of fun”. This is as hypocritical a notion as the one that states that women who pose in pornographic, glamour or advertising photos are victims of men and not responsible for their actions. (It bears mentioning that women's magazines have far more glamour shots of women than the magazines mostly read by men, which are often filled with pictures of vehicles, scientific breakthroughs that aid us all, landscapes, important world events, and so on.)
On one hand, when it suits, feminists portray men as lustful brutes; they say women have a superior, finer sexuality. On the other (when convenient to disempower, by denying men’s unique sexuality), feminists loudly proclaim that women's sexuality does not differ in any significant way from men's, and that women should behave as they claim men behave. The propositions are mutually exclusive and exist not to liberate, but to imprison.
Strategic Disempowerment attains its greatest manipulative force when memetically attached to strong emotions and functions such as sex, guilt and shame. Feminism gets a free piggyback ride in Western cultures as males already tend to feel Christian guilt for their natural desires. A man who is attracted to younger women is a 'pervert', a 'sexist'; a woman attracted to younger men is a 'role-model', a 'wild and free woman'. (Similarly, a female bully is 'strong' and 'assertive'.)
Regarding love and romance, in all but a few cases, popular romantic songs and poems are written by men. In addition, only a small percentage of romantic gifts and vacations are purchased by women. Love and romance are the dream and goal of most men.

Conclusion
Men and women each have their contribution to make to the world. This is best achieved in a spirit of equality, understanding, and perhaps most of all … honesty, a character trait missing from many feminist writings.
The need for the raising of consciousness and male pride has never been more compelling.

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