What’s the meaning of gender equality? For some it seems it’s got to do with outrage when a female is at the receiving end of sexist treatment, but when a man is faced with the same situation, he’s supposed to put up with it. Or isn’t he?
Yes, that’s what Amy Stockwell from Mamamia wrote in an article that has left me scratching my head. She seems to imply that women are some kind of untouchable, unassailable class that has to be respected, whereas men are fair game and have to cop whatever comes their way. Here in Australia we’re living in ‘interesting times’.
‘Sexism towards men (or reverse-sexism) simply does not exist,’ says Amy.
I would’ve loved her way of thinking years ago, when I was a man-hater. Yeah, I was a man-hater because of my own issues, which could take up a lot longer to discuss than what’s reasonable for a blog post. And yet I wanted a man to love me. My level of delusion knew no bounds. Nobody can love or respect if they aren’t loved or respected in return. But let’s stick to respect. Yeah, respect—an essential element of all human relationships.
As Germaine Greer said once, we know that some men hate all women all the time. Those men are called misogynists. Their misogyny manifests itself in many different ways, such as cyberbullying, abusing their female friends and partners—both physically and emotionally—and generally disrespecting any female in their workplace and social life. Even if in some cases their attitudes don’t qualify as crime, they’re still destructive. Very destructive.
But we all know a female or two who’ll play the ‘victim card’ in order to take advantage of a man. It seems that for some enlightened thinkers, that’s absolutely all right simply because women have always experienced sexism from men. So if a man cops sexism from a woman, that’s fine and dandy.
Well, I beg to differ …
It’s the human race that is set to suffer in these cases. A cycle of abuse and revenge between the sexes isn’t good for humanity as a whole. It tears the social fabric. One thing is a woman who kills an abuser in self-defence and quite another is a self-defined feminist ‘girlie’ who believes that men should be treated with derision simply because they’re men.
A few days after Amy Stockwell published her so-called ‘opinion piece’ in the Mamamia site, Australians woke up to the news that former Australian Army Chief Lt. Gen. David Morrison was named 2016 Australian of the Year. An Army veteran with a steely look, straight and a WASP, was made Australian of the Year for his commitment to gender equality, diversity and inclusion. His acceptance speech is a game changer. You can watch it below.
So, to cut a long story short and from my humble point of view, a columnist who peddles revenge on men on account of the wrongs done by men to women is dwarfed into insignificance by a well deserved award given to a worthy man who’s made the fight for equality his own cause. For those who don’t believe me, here’s David Morrison’s speech as Army Chief, filmed over two years ago.
Catcha later, FFJ 🙂