Within gender discourse, I often hear a very narrow recounting of history. One that suggests men had it great, or lived on easy mode, and it was exclusively women who suffered. This is not the same story that I was taught; where the pages human history told a tale of pain and suffering, that was inflicted more-or-less equally onto both women and men. Whilst the dividing line of privilege was one primarily of class, and not gender. Our highly politicised revisionist approach to history usually results in the familiar screeching catchphrase of, ‘well men have never died because of their gender!’ Which is wholly untrue, and you have no right to erase the unimaginable pain and suffering of history’s lost men and boys, and those who loved them. As men have continually died because of their gender. Whether through gender based conscription, horrifying gendercides of men and boys, through forced abduction, or the unique persecution of gay and minority men. Boko Haram, Saddam Hussein, the N*zi party, and many other brutal dictatorships and despots have singled out men and boys, and laid waste to millions. Yes, countless men and boys have died specifically because of their gender, and I think it’s about time we corrected the history books, and filled in its many missing pages. ~ Anfal Genocide [1] [2] Srenbrenica [1] [2][3] Kashmir [1][2][3] Nazi Germany Images by Daniel Cristian Padure, Carolin Theirgart, Ray Zhou, Agreen, Mathias Redding from Unsplash

2023-01-16