A UK Member of Parliament recently suggested that there should be a Government minister for men which would presumably do similar things to the existsing minister for Women.
This has thrown up a series of heated discussions on social media about whether this is part of the ‘backlash’ against feminsm, or whether there is a legitimate need for wider support of men’s issues.
As a man who believes that there are legitimate issues disproportionately affecting men which should be addressed, what I really want help in understanding is the opinion that men don’t need any targetted support.
I don’t want to start a big argument, but I do want to understand this perspective, because I have struggled to understand it before and I don’t like feeling like I’m missing something.
Even in the UK, I’ve never been sexually assaulted or discriminated for being male by anyone. But I know so many women who have been. Sexism is near non-existent for most men. My point is that misogyny is far more prominent than misandry, and regardless you only need one social equalities minister or a group of people working towards it. Not to segregate it into black/white/female/male etc. Doesn’t mean misandry doesn’t matter, but you can’t compare them in reality, as the consequences of misogyny are far more wide-spread and worse. If you want to keep it in the UK, you are still lying to say men face anywhere near as much discrimination as women.