On International Women’s Day, don’t forget men
Opinion by Ben Pobjie
I am as committed a feminist as the next man. I fully support women’s right to stand for parliament, and if traffic lights want to wear dresses, I don’t object in any way whatsoever.
So on this International Women’s Day, I’m not going to write one of those predictable pieces asking when International Men’s Day is: firstly, because I fully support the aims of IWD, and secondly, because I know the answer is November 19.
But though IWD is a worthy cause, as with all things, there has to be a limit.
The key to a harmonious society is balance, and we lose that if we let IWD’s increasingly monomaniacal focus on “women’s rights” come at the expense of the emotional equilibrium of one of our community’s most easily distressed demographics: men.
It was ABC’s Q&A program that really hammered home what a monster International Women’s Day has become. On this week’s episode, every panellist was a woman.
Poor old host Tony Jones was forced to wrangle five unruly ladies as they spewed forth their relentlessly female takes on the issues, without even a single man to give the other side of the story.
If the program is meant to inform and educate, it failed quite miserably, as anyone watching would’ve received a shamelessly one-sided view due to the absence of any articulation of potential counterpoints, eg this isn’t actually very important, or stop being so emotional.
And I’m not saying the lady panellists were necessarily being emotional, or obsessing over trivialities or worrying their pretty little heads over nothing.
I’m just saying you can hardly call it a robust discussion if nobody is around to at least raise the possibility. What kind of “debate” is being had if there are no interruptions to point out that someone else is getting hysterical?
The rise of the all-women panel is setting men back
Of course, the all-women panel is a growing trend in public discourse, but I can’t help but see it as a regressive move.
As a man, I know only too well the savage sting of rejection I feel whenever I see a panel thrashing out the most pressing matters of the day and realise there are no men present.
“Who is representing me?” I ask myself — silently, because all the women have naturally intimidated me too much to voice my concerns out loud — and a tear runs down my cheek as I question the validity of my very existence.
The all-women panel sends a very clear message, and though some may say that message is nothing more sinister than, “Here are some women talking about things”, the message I receive loud and clear is, “You are a sad, impotent irrelevance and we have come to cut your bits off”.
I think every man knows the sickening feeling of emasculation that comes from looking at a stage or a TV screen with no men on it: that feeling of erasure, of understanding that your thoughts and feelings mean nothing.
What makes it harder to take it that we know full well someone in a position of authority has made the conscious decision to perform this figurative kick to the groin.
It’s as if the world is sneering, “There is no place for you here, foolish man: scurry back to your man-hole”.
It gets worse: The ABC is banning male presenters
If the psychic devastation wrought by the trend towards exclusionary femininity is disturbing, today will see the damage magnified, as the ABC inserts female presenters into all its programs.
Every single one, all day. Men will not be able to turn on the ABC and see a calming male face, or hear the soothing sound of a deep, resonant voice.
The national broadcaster will be wall-to-wall women, a menacing mono-gender nightmare making all our deepest fears that we are alone in this universe and women are constantly getting together to laugh at us behind our backs come true.
It’s the children I feel most for.
The little boys who have by unfortunate chance decided that today is the day they finally get to grips with current events, today is the day they become a responsible citizen, only to be told in no uncertain terms that this is a woman’s world.
Do they deserve to be exposed to this harsh truth so early in life?
It doesn’t have to be this way.
International Women’s Day is a fine thing in moderation. But if it makes no room to consider the feelings of men, what kind of celebration of womanhood is it?
Next IWD, let’s make a change: let’s make sure that for one day a year at least, men feel included. Then we’ll truly have equality.
Editor’s note: Yes, this is (heavily) satirical.
