If the patriarchy hurts men too, then why do I never see those parts being ‘smashed’? Why do our noble gender equality advocates obsess over the tiny number of ‘powerful men’ at the top of society’s pyramid, when millions more men lay in the gutters of homelessness, or scatter the battlefield of addiction, or waste away in our broken jail system? Isn’t equality something we’re all entitled to? Did you know, more men die at work each year, than all the American military deaths from the entire 20 year Iraq war? Or the fact that boys are failing in education; at every level, in virtually every developed nation? Did you know that gay men are less accepted than gay women in every country studied? Did you know that in the year George Floyd was murdered, over 99% of black Americans killed by police, were black men? What about the hundreds of studies and national surveys that show women and men are equally violent in relationships? Or the fact that men’s health outcomes are now so poor, that if we were able to make men’s mortality rates the same as women’s, we’d do more good than curing cancer. Like it, or hate it – these are all facts. And whilst I enjoy telling people *what* they didn’t know, sometimes a more pertinent question is *why* didn’t you know it already? For who is dealing the cards here? Who is holding the microphone of discourse, and hogging the podium? Who are you afraid of when you talk about these issues? Why are you learning these essential facts, from an Instagram account, rather than from the headlines of newspapers? I have no fear in saying it: Feminism has failed men and boys. And if you’re a man, or someone who cares about men, it has failed you too. It has failed by neglecting, or even obstructing, the full scale of what is going on to our men and boys, and replacing it with meagre calls for ‘male tears’ or ’talk’. It has failed by interrupting and maligning advocacy for men, with brittle shrieks and cries of ‘misogyny’. It does the ‘bare minimum’ for men and boys, and that’s me being generous. ~ Images by Lujia Zhang, Adam Nir, Dimi Katsavaris, Gradienta, Josh Rondeau, Rene Bohmer, Jon Tyson.

2023-02-24