I have yet to make sense of how the conversation of “gender equality”, never seems to include men and boys. It literally doesn’t make sense. Advocacy for domestic violence... Awareness for sexual abuse... Policy for educational reform… Never speaks for men and boys. ‘Equality’, through some weird-oxymoronic-twist, seems to have only one side. Well, at least, the ‘advocacy’ continually shouted across social media, or yelled in the street does. For there are few placards for the 50,000,000 abused men in America. Little talk about the one in twelve American men who will experience sexual violence in his life. And a deafening silence for the 132 million boys now out of education worldwide, recently surpassing the girls. And whilst the crumbs of compassion are kindly given – a few nice words about ‘men talking’, or ‘boys crying’ are appreciated – they are not the whole picture. Men talking and boys crying is just one sentence in what needs to be an epic Tolkien-style-saga of change. And that change, needs happen on both sides. So tell me oh-so noble advocates for gender equality, and great guardians of morality; you spoke so bravely and proudly for women, but where is your voice for the other half of the gender divide? Because ‘equality for women’ is not ‘equality’. As equality has two halves. ~ Images by Gradienta, Kiwi Hug and David Travis United Nations Data

2023-08-31