Gender Inequalities: A Two Way Street

Throughout the whole time on the gender topic we have constantly discussed the idea of “feminism” and “sexuality” without ever discussing the topic no one wants to touch, or that no one even wishes to acknowledge: masculinism. We have constantly talked about how women are paid 80 cents per dollar a man makes in an equal workload environment and how women are viewed as weaker, but have never talked about the disadvantages a man or father faces. Though I will admit that women are still disadvantaged in certain places of society, the point I am trying to raise with this blog is that it is not a one-way street. Though it may not be talked about as much, there are certain advantages women have and in a class discussing gender I feel it is only right to look at both sides of the argument.

One of the first topics is the fact that men are often sentenced to longer prison sentences than women for similar crimes. Along the same line, the idea that “women never lie” leads to a bias against males within cases of rape, and in some cases men are not allowed to face their accuser. Also, the idea that men have to pay higher premiums for life and disability insurance and in some countries, they have to pay higher income taxes. The last two concerns for general males is the increasing suicide rate among males which is not being addressed and the lack of health concerns shown for men (in that breast cancer awareness is constantly promoted but prostate cancer awareness isn’t promoted as much, despite similar mortality rates).

Applying to parents individually, however, there are several large concerns in what appear to be glaring double standards. The first of which is the way in which there is discrimination in child custody after a divorce, with the idea that a mom can take care of a kid better than the male counterpart. Also, the idea of alimony and child support where the male has to pay money to the wife or pay to support the kid, which I could understand if it applied to men who took custody or if it paying this support automatically entitled the father to visitation rights, which it does not. Possibly the most troubling, however, is when it comes to arguments over abortion. If a man wants to have a kid but the woman does not the man has no say. The woman can abort anytime she wants without the father’s consent. The bigger part of this, however, is the idea of male abortion. If a male does not want a kid, he should be allowed to renounce all legal ties to the child if it is still within the time of legal female abortion. This is exactly the same as if the woman had aborted the kid in that she would have no legal responsibilities or if she were to give the child up for adoption. She is able to sever all ties to the child, both legal and socially, but the father is not allowed to.

As stated above, I do not intend this to come off as misogynistic nor am I suggesting that a man’s life is hard while women get all the advantages, for that is not true. The point was merely to show that men have their own disadvantages and in a class such as ours it would be important to discuss both sides of the gender issue.