Here’s my entire hypothesis around this page: we don’t care about men and boys. Or at least, we don’t care about them as much as we do about women and girls. It’s easy to see. We silently watch boys slip behind in education, and we will stand idly by as men’s health continues to deteriorate. We’ll do nothing to seriously address the epidemic of male suicide, sit on our hands as the industries which heavily employ men are lost to automation, and do nothing as the millions of abused men continue to be shut out from our abuse support services. The education gap of boys, the employment crisis of men, and the epidemic of deaths of despair, are of too little interest, for far too many people. Meanwhile compassion, advocacy, funding and intervention will rightfully continue to be laid at the feet of our women and girls, as it should be. And whilst I support these women and girls too, the two way road of sexism cannot be ignored any longer. So yes, I will ask, what about the men and boys? What about the 115 million child grooms that nobody talks about? What about the 10,000 Nigerian boys taken by Boko Haram that nobody made signs for? What about the missing indigenous men of Canada, who were never investigated? And yes, what about the thirty boys murdered in London last year, who remain forgotten by the city’s Mayor? What about, what about, what about. I am not surprised so many do not like this question, in the same way that so many children do not like eating vegetables. But it is only through this difficult question that I am able to demonstrate that men and boys suffer a uniquely two layered problem: The first part are the issues impacting men and boys themselves. And the second part is asking ‘why does nobody give a fuck about them’? So yes, I will continue to poke and prod, antagonise if needed, and ask the unpopular questions that many find uncomfortable, perhaps even distasteful, yet which remains no less essential. For there are no easy questions here. So I ask, again, what about the men, what about the boys? ~ Images by Charles DeLuvio, Caroline Thiergart, Dan Cristian Padure and Sean Sinclair, from Unsplash.

2022-12-07