New Mangina Bastard on the block...

**Percy** · 31st-October-2009

.... in Australia, and getting a platform in the Australian Weekend newspaper which is usually a 'straightforward' sort of paper.

I am thinking of a response. but would appreciate some inputs.

If all else fails, embittered blokes blame the women

THE PUNCH: David Penberthy | October 31, 2009
Article from: The Australian

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,26279010-7583,00.html

IN his deservingly scornful review of the book Iron John, Robert Bly's absurd bible of the men's movement in the US, British author Martin Amis describes the comical pilgrimage made by maladjusted men into the American woods to sniff each other's armpits, channel negative energy into circles of hate and howl at the moon because Mum had them circumcised.

Happily, this quest to unleash what Amis ridicules as "the hairy satyr within" does not appear to have any formal and organised equivalent in Australia.

This is probably because most Australian men have nothing of any real magnitude to get off their chest, or simply find that the odd night at the pub or the occasional fishing weekend provides ample therapy for any lingering sense of gender injustice. That, and the fact we've got too wry a sense of humour and too much self-awareness to engage in anything that silly.

But while Australia does not have a men's movement, it does appear to have a number -- perhaps a growing number -- of maladjusted men.
It's obviously a hard thing to quantify. There's no box you can tick on the census (Anglo-Saxon, agnostic, salary 75k-100k, male, maladjusted) to provide a reliable statistic. But they are out there.

Unlike their macho cousins in the US, they're not dancing like the Navajo or making a humpy out of twigs. To put a deliberately sexist spin on it, they're whining like girls.

As more and more of our conversations take place online, it is cyberspace where the stroppier blokes among our number are giving voice to a range of emotions.

Some of it, in all sincerity, is genuinely moving stuff, involving Family Court battles where a man who claims to have been wronged by his wife has lost all access to theirchildren.

But a lot of it is a combination of excuse-making and blame-shifting by men who've probably made stupid choices, or just haven't got their act together, or have destroyed their marriage and lost contact with their kids through their own alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

And a distressingly high portion appears to be unadorned misogyny, where men will seize on any suggestion that women can ever face a specific kind of hardship as a result ofpublic policy, health issues, crime or theeconomy.
Cyberspace is a moshpit and we had an eye-opening experience on our website ThePunch some months back when a perfectly innocent and reasoned piece about the effect of the global financial crisis on women became the spark for a boys-on-girls sandpit brawl.

The author (who probably doesn't want me to rev up the stink again, so I'll keep it vague) chronicled several pointers to the special type of hardship that women had suffered as a result of the downturn.

One of these was the fact, to their credit, many bosses had resisted the temptation not to sack workers but reduce their hours.

But for many women, who were already employed part time anyway, the adjustment was too great on their personal budgets, unlike men on full time who found their hours being trimmed.

On the flipside, women who had been out of the workforce for years were finding themselves going through the anguish of trying to re-enter work, having lost their occupational skills through motherhood and feeling torn at having to juggle their children with this new pressure to provide.

This perfectly sensible article triggered aseries of embittered responses from a bunchof blokes, some of whom used it to expound on a raft of tangential topics relating to their apparent emasculation at the hands of the sisterhood.

It has become a recurring phenomenon, around similar themes, whenever the word woman appears in any article. The hostility is at its most pronounced in the following areas:

* Illness: Even something as noble and benign as Pink Ribbon Day is held up as a sinister plot to draw more attention -- and more donations -- to the issue of breast cancer at the expense of the desperately unsexy prostate cancer. This (obviously) male condition has become the (allegedly) unsung cause of choice for angry men who feel that all the support and coverage is going in the direction of the fairer sex.

* Sport: In a year dominated by sex scandals involving everyone from Matthew Johns to Wayne Carey to Brendan Fevola, there's a view that these guys are the victims in a society where it's the alcopop-fuelled teenage starlets who line them up as some kind of quarry. Any suggestion that the clubs could do more to get women involved in administrative positions, or that the players could just experiment with acting like humans, is dismissed as a politically correct lecture.

* Management: Sport aside, the assertion that women are perhaps under-represented on the board of pretty much everything is denounced as demeaning tokenism. The specious argument runs that nothing would insult women more than some concerted attempt via affirmative action, or just a collective act of goodwill, to slot them into a rare position of serious authority. Which means it's easier to keep insulting them in the traditional way, by exclusion.

* Crime: The idea that domestic violence and sexual assault has been somehow exaggerated or even concocted, while the men who are apparently victims of such treatment by women go unheard.

* Family law: Mixed with liberal doses of allof the above to establish the men-as-victims case.

We spend a large part of our day umming and ahing as to whether we will publish the comments from the angry blokes who slot into the above categories. We run many of them because they're indicative of a mindset that should at least be reflected.

But you can't help but think it would be healthier if these Australian guys could spend a weekend in the woods rather than taking itout on whoever happens to be listening incyberspace.

The saddest aspect in reading the missives from these angry men is the way their sense of isolation comes through. Many of them are in a predicament of their own making.

But that should not absolve us from trying to find a way to bring them back into the community, perhaps initially by suggesting that sitting alone in front of a computer, randomly venting their fury, is the least social way to take part in society.

**6ame** · 31st-October-2009

The specious argument runs that nothing would insult women more than some concerted attempt via affirmative action

A lot of strong women also believe in this "specious" argument, a lot of women know they can earn their position on merit, it's not just "embittered men" who hold this view.

Pitiful nonsense, if you're a woman and think you're treated unjustly, then something should be done about it immediately, if you're a man (bloke) and think you're treated unjustly, then soak it up, go and do stereotypical "manly" things in the woods, get over yourself, stop whining.
I've heard all this before, it's straight out the feminism guide book on what to say. As I said, pitiful, I'm sure he'll have the women queueing up, not.

We spend a large part of our day umming and ahing as to whether we will publish the comments from the angry blokes who slot into the above categories.

So an admittance that there are a lot of "angry blokes" out there, and yet he mocks them? I wonder if he would be so quick to mock if they had lots of "angry sheilas" who had many comments, so many that they "spend a large part of their day umming and ahing as to whether to publish them".

**Percy** · 31st-October-2009

Dave grew up in Adelaide’s southern suburbs and attended a really nice public school, Marion High, which was subsequently bulldozed during the tyrannical reign of Liberal Premier Dean Brown. He fell into journalism while not studying law at the University of Adelaide. He joined The Adelaide Advertiser as a cadet journalist in 1992 and spent his first few years on the newspaper as education reporter, industrial reporter and state political reporter.

In 1996, shortly after the election of the Howard Government, he was posted to Canberra to head the Advertiser’s parliamentary bureau. In 1999 he moved to Sydney to join The Daily Telegraph as state parliament bureau chief, a position he held for three years before his appointment as chief of staff and then as opinion editor and roving columnist for the paper. In April 2005 he became editor of The Daily Telegraph, a position he held until November last year. He is now the editor of The Punch.
When not writing about stuff or reading stuff other people have written, he can be found at home in the kitchen cooking traditional dishes from Mexico, where he lived for a year in 1986, and which after a few tequilas he will wrongly cite as his place of birth.

It appears he has enemies.

This is from 'Crikey'.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/04/07/is-this-the-most-useless-editor-in-australia/

Is this the most useless editor in Australia?

Possum Comitatus writes:

It’s the question that has been asked over the weekend, or at least asked far more often than the question The Daily Telegraph posed on Saturday.

David Penberthy, the Editor of the rag responsible for publishing the most outrageous piece of trash printed in an Australian newspaper for the last decade, now seems to be flailing around like some silly child caught throwing rocks at houses – desperately reaching for any excuse, however implausible, however pathetic, that could remotely justify the disgraceful behaviour of the Telegraph on Saturday.
After getting deservedly slapped around all weekend for one of the larger acts of stupidity undertaken by a major daily in recent history, one would think the Tele would have cut its losses, basked in its sensationalism and enjoyed the few extra eyeballs the exercise generated for their advertisers – but the collective slapping by the deep end of the economic and political gene pool apparently stung a little more than was expected, bringing the Telegraph not only the eyeballs it was after, but a large hit on the credibility of the paper itself - and that definitely wasn’t in the plan.

This morning’s sordid attempt by Penberthy to vindicate the odious cocktail of personal attack and economic fantasy that was thrown at the Governor of the RBA Glenn Stevens would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. Putting on his “everymans” face – the writing style that’s supposed to relate to the “common man” as if it somehow exonerates the piffle that will inevitably follow, Penberthy argues:

(P. There is more but not relavent to us chaps)

**CaptDMO** · 31st-October-2009

I am thinking of a response. but would appreciate some inputs.

OK, some inputs...

Apparently, just encourage this chap to keep writing what he really "feels". Direct "notoriety", and advertisers dollars, to more well reasoned publications.
What you cited was enough (OK, TOO much). After skimming I determined no need to follow the link to the site, and suffer the data mining, and mandatory exposure to advertising, of "The Australian".

Encourage those that strongly agree with Mr. Penberthy to opine in, habituate, and apply their advertising budgets toward The Australian's pages to support that publication's endorsement of his views. That way, the grown ups can talk elsewhere around the table, while the kids are still throwing chicken fingers and crisps, confined to the card table in the kitchen, but noooot quite out of ear shot.

Consider what the efforts of the "company" that the current US President has surrounded himself with has done for his harshest critics at the FOX Media Group, and what has happened to less clear thinking "news" outlets in the all important ratings, as well as growing public perception of who ACTUALLY holds the most integrity.
(As of this time I believe that inexplicably surviving Rachael Maddow, currently of MSNBC, has sunk to the very bottom, and "new faces" seem to be popping up in place of ridiculed slobbering "progressives".)

Darwinism, and the free market, will take care of the rest.
How much of YOUR time is worth investing in a fray of such a clearly impotent position, other than marking, and repeatedly citing, (or maybe simply citing the site, without hyper-link) Mr.Penberthy's "offering", in defense of the easy dismissal of his future input toward important issues.

I'm ASSUMING that "The Australian" allegedly survives on it's own editorial/intellectual merits, and NO "gub'mint assistance", including "special" rights/tax exemptions for "special" Australian media employees, RIGHT?

Simply allow Mr.Penberthy to continue his journey toward his rightful position of self reverence, and clearly desperate audience posturing akin to Iranian Diplomatic Negotiator, in forums of perceived relevance.

**chris1970** · 31st-October-2009

good to see there is a growing movement in Australia enough to merit a twat like this to get all defensive in a national newspaper. BRING IT ON!!!!!!!

would have been interesting to have seen comments from the public if they had been able to respond to that article.

**paul parmenter** · 1st-November-2009

Percy, you can use my normal input in cases such as this.

Which is to wish said mangina all the happiness in the world. The happiness of having a nice house, money in the bank, and a shiny new car in the garage. The happiness of a beautiful wife baking cakes in the kitchen, and children running through the flowers in the garden while the birds sing and the sun shines down on this picture of bliss.

I wish this cornucopia of joy for Mr Penberthy with the deepest and utmost sincerity.

Oh yes, I really do. I speak the truth.

And then, with absolutely the same deepest sincerity, I wish for Mr Penberthy's wife to decide she has had enough of him, and to initiate divorce proceedings against him. With a hell-bent determination to take him to the cleaners and ensure he never sees his children again. And with a smart, unscrupulous feminist lawyer to advise her.

And at the same time, I also wish, again with the deepest sincerity, that one of Mr Penberthy's female work colleagues - one who is a most plausible liar and with a profound ability to delude others as well as herself (in fact just such a female as Mr Penberthy's attitudes enable and encourage) decides to lay a false charge of rape against him.

Because it is only when enough sneering manginas like Mr Penberthy are forced to swallow the same shit as other poor wretches, that there is any chance of them understanding why men are getting angry.

**Percy** · 1st-November-2009

Quote from paul parmenter

Percy, you can use my normal input in cases such as this.

Which is to wish said mangina all the happiness in the world. The happiness of having a nice house, money in the bank, and a shiny new car in the garage. The happiness of a beautiful wife baking cakes in the kitchen, and children running through the flowers in the garden while the birds sing and the sun shines down on this picture of bliss.

I wish this cornucopia of joy for Mr Penberthy with the deepest and utmost sincerity.

Oh yes, I really do. I speak the truth.

And then, with absolutely the same deepest sincerity, I wish for Mr Penberthy's wife to decide she has had enough of him, and to initiate divorce proceedings against him. With a hell-bent determination to take him to the cleaners and ensure he never sees his children again. And with a smart, unscrupulous feminist lawyer to advise her.

And at the same time, I also wish, again with the deepest sincerity, that one of Mr Penberthy's female work colleagues - one who is a most plausible liar and with a profound ability to delude others as well as herself (in fact just such a female as Mr Penberthy's attitudes enable and encourage) decides to lay a false charge of rape against him.

Because it is only when enough sneering manginas like Mr Penberthy are forced to swallow the same shit as other poor wretches, that there is any chance of them understanding why men are getting angry.

I'm not sure whether to simply lift your words Paul, or say, as one gentleman to another, 'After you, Sir'.

**Percy** · 1st-November-2009

OK, while the Iron is hot, I have used your excellent words Paul.

It would be very helpful if several others also sent letters to the Editor, politely of course.

The email is:

'letters@theaustralian.com.au'

Dear Sir,

I see the Australian weekend newspaper is contributing to Dr Mcnamara’s University of Western Sydney study which showed that the media overlooks no opportunity to rubbish men.

For Mr David Penberthy of the Punch (Weekend Australian 31 Oct) I wish all the happiness in the world. The happiness of having a nice house, money in the bank, and a shiny new car in the garage. The happiness of a beautiful wife baking cakes in the kitchen, and children running through the flowers in the garden while the birds sing and the sun shines down on this picture of bliss.

I wish this cornucopia of joy for Mr Penberthy with the deepest and utmost sincerity.

And with the same deepest sincerity, I wish for Mr Penberthy's wife to decide she has had enough of his crassness and to initiate divorce proceedings against him. I wish her a hell-bent determination to take him to the cleaners and ensure he never sees his children again. With a smart, unscrupulous feminist lawyer to advise her he will pay through the nose for the privilege when he eventually convinces Chief Justice Bryant that he ought.

And at the same time, I also wish, again with the deepest sincerity, that one of Mr Penberthy's female work colleagues - one who is a most plausible liar and with a profound ability to delude others as well as herself - in fact just such a female as Mr Penberthy's attitudes enable and encourage - decides to lay a false charge of rape against him. It wil hurt his reputation, but fortunately it is already beyond saving.

It is only when enough sneering half-wits like Mr Penberthy are forced to swallow the same swill as other poor wretches, that there is any chance of them understanding why men are getting angry.

**julie** · 1st-November-2009

Tis a far cry from what an Aussie male used to be known as.

**julie** · 1st-November-2009

I wrote to the editor using my own little way. I am guessing that lots of Australians will write in saying something and it may be that many will be experts so my e-mail might just see the trash only.

I think Australia's awareness of what men go through has changed over the last few years. My grandfather and brother told me to stay away from the men's movement 3 years ago because they were aware of it but didn't like the men in it. It has always had a reputation as embittered men so it is no loss to have that now. IMHO
This is meant in a positive way. Being bitter has worked regardless of what others who are not affected think.

Since then, I spoke with my brother again just a few weeks ago and I was amazed that he was telling me about the feminisation of Australia and how it affects schools where the children can't play as we could.

He is definitely one of the Aussie blokes that uses the outdoors as an escape and works a laboring business so the news must be travelling well to affect him.

.............

We even discussed my other brother who had gone through a divorce a year ago after only 4 years marriage. He lost a lot because he is successful and had accumulated quite a bit but they didn't have children so she hasn't got the best of him. He has plenty of years left in him to accumulate 20 times over, maybe more.

Then we spoke about the ex's and mates from our teenage years that still keep in touch and what their marriages were like and who got divorced. It seems like my brother has the greatest amount of freedom to be a guy, to have his space. He tells me, "he is the only one who can do as he pleases".

Funny that. When I moved to NZ one of my girlfriends moved in with my brother and I got an invitation to the wedding. I was furious because I felt she wronged me. But now I just love her because she has been the best friend for 16 years my brother could have had.

As for my brother who is divorced, well,... all I can think is that he hasn't even started his family yet and that it probably won't hurt for him to come down a peg or two and get a working class girl. Trophy wives are not IMHO a good investment but he had the looks, he had the gifts in all he did and he had the money. Just lucky for him she wasn't into a family herself.

Anyhooo, I think there is definitely a men's movement in Australia. Just a shame the editor of one of the countries main newspapers doesn't know it.

**Incognito** · 1st-November-2009

Quote from Percy

OK, while the Iron is hot, I have used your excellent words Paul.

It would be very helpful if several others also sent letters to the Editor, politely of course.

The email is:

'letters@theaustralian.com.au'

Dear Sir,

I see the Australian weekend newspaper is contributing to Dr Mcnamara’s University of Western Sydney study which showed that the media overlooks no opportunity to rubbish men.

For Mr David Penberthy of the Punch (Weekend Australian 31 Oct) I wish all the happiness in the world. The happiness of having a nice house, money in the bank, and a shiny new car in the garage. The happiness of a beautiful wife baking cakes in the kitchen, and children running through the flowers in the garden while the birds sing and the sun shines down on this picture of bliss.

I wish this cornucopia of joy for Mr Penberthy with the deepest and utmost sincerity.

And with the same deepest sincerity, I wish for Mr Penberthy's wife to decide she has had enough of his crassness and to initiate divorce proceedings against him. I wish her a hell-bent determination to take him to the cleaners and ensure he never sees his children again. With a smart, unscrupulous feminist lawyer to advise her he will pay through the nose for the privilege when he eventually convinces Chief Justice Bryant that he ought.

And at the same time, I also wish, again with the deepest sincerity, that one of Mr Penberthy's female work colleagues - one who is a most plausible liar and with a profound ability to delude others as well as herself - in fact just such a female as Mr Penberthy's attitudes enable and encourage - decides to lay a false charge of rape against him. It wil hurt his reputation, but fortunately it is already beyond saving.

It is only when enough sneering half-wits like Mr Penberthy are forced to swallow the same swill as other poor wretches, that there is any chance of them understanding why men are getting angry.

Ouch!

That's bound to rouse something inside of him, alright! Hopefully it will get him to think.

**Feckless** · 1st-November-2009

Another one of those, don´t be a pussy, man up posts. Just remeber, it is all fun and games until you are not allowed to see your kids anymore.

**johnkimble1** · 1st-November-2009

Some key flaws in the article (amongst many).

1. No one is blaming women for anything. THe MRA movement is very far more into equal opportunities than most people on this planet. Any self respecting MRA knows that gender feminist men are just as big a problem as their female counterparts, then on top of that you've got the huge issue of the usally more conservative but chivalrous men who do plenty of damage too. The fact the author of that article is a man very much proves this point.

2. The author chastises men who "have destroyed their marriage and lost contact with their kids through their own alcohol abuse and domestic violence." Fair enough, but why are women who do these same things allowed to retain custody of their children?, most domestic violence is reciprocal afterall. And of course fale abuse allegatiosn of the number one weapon used by female to gain custody of children.

3. Would he ridicule female victim traumatised as a result of genital mutilation in the same way he does with males?

4. Given that massively more men than women have lost their jobs as a result of the downturn, why on earth is it not appropriate to take offence at the media and politician pretending females are the victims?

5. Is it really appropriate to pretend cancer is a gender issue and something that doesn't affect men? A visitor from anther planet would instantly pick up such a message from most cancer charities and much of the media. How about we start pretending that no women ever get murdered - it would at least be a more honest message.

6. Study after study show there to be vast numebrs of male victims of domestic violence, with many showing no difference between the genders. Yet polcie figure show few arrests of women, even fewer convictions and next to no shelters for men. There are countless reasons stopping men coming forward and condemning those seeking to gain recognition of such men is sick beyond belief.

7. There are so many sick politicians and idiots in the media trying to portray males ans an inferior species in order to further their agendas. They think they can get away with bullying men, harassing them and denying them their rights and even a relationship with their families. It's good to see a growing movement challenging such evil and what we need is more men challenging such discrimination rather than running off to the woods to escape their problems like they've always done.