The Times has today published a reaction to the hoo-ha generated by its Babewatch campaign, which generated a rising number of reports of sexism against men.
This “masculism” as Mark Jones writes, “has not got much traction in popular culture”, but it seems only a matter of time as he points out the big issues that matter: “men’s health policy, parental access, legal equality”; casual discrimination, such as the retirement age for men being later than women’s; and commercials, from David Beckham in his kecks to “the dorking of men”, such as the advert where an oven cleaning product is straplined “so easy, even a man could do it”.
This also gave me pause for thought: “I wonder what parents think is worse. Their girls are expected to aspire to be thin, gorgeous, sassy and rich. Their boys are expected to become scruffy losers whose pathetic existence is brightened up only by a pint of Carlsberg and their weekly fix of Nuts magazine.”
The skewed humour that suggests men are, well a bit crap (remember those T shirts that read “boys are stupid, throw rocks at them”) seems to be far more acceptable than if a girl was the butt of the humour. And men are being hit more by unemployment in the recession, male suicide rates are higher than women’s, they get substantially less parental leave and apparently even education is “feminised”.
The oppression of women historically has been so severe, and continues around the world, that it seems strange to be worrying about the pendulum swinging the other way. But is it time for “men’s lib”?