The main aim of any men's movement must be to highlight the widespread injustices which exist against men and to campaign against the underlying prejudices which are responsible for these injustices.
I believe that there are seven principles the men's movement must adopt in order to bring about real change in men's lives.
We must recognize that both sexes have suffered because of their respective gender roles.
We must speak out against those in society who believe that men can only be defined in terms of their assigned gender roles of protector and provider.
We must be able to freely question women's prejudices concerning gender roles without being told that we're anti-women and/or misogynists.
We must give men the same opportunity to speak out about their own powerlessness and suffering as we do women.
We must develop the same sensitivity to the powerlessness and suffering of men as we do for the powerlessness and suffering of women.
We must condemn those who use messages of blame, shame and guilt in order to intimidate and silence men.
We must recognize the critically important role that societal forces have played in molding and defining the male gender role.
Unfortunately, the very things which must be done to confront our deeply held prejudices against men, strikes at the very heart of what many men and women regard as the essence of masculinity. Society prefers to see men as powerful non-victims who must stand or fall on their own. Hence most men, in their desperate struggle to conform to this all encompassing image of manhood, are either unwilling or unable to question the underlying prejudices which form and shape their assigned gender role.
In order to appreciate why this is the case we must have a clear picture of the underlying factors that are responsible for shaping the male gender role.
In the small nomadic tribes of the Neolithic stone age, where survival and procreation were paramount, it was extremely important that both sexes fulfill their assigned gender roles. Harsh reality dictated that women's lives were almost totally dominated by the bearing and raising of children while men's lives were dominated by the need to protect and provide for those in their care.
Driven by our primordial need to pass on our genes, early humans developed extremely strong societal controls to ensure that each sex did not stray too far from their assigned gender roles. The need for strong societal controls was doubly true for the males since the biological imperatives underpinning their gender role (i.e. the fact that they do not bear children and their greater upper-body strength) were far weaker than the biological imperatives underpinning the female gender role.
To restrict men to their assigned roles of protector and provider, society has had to develop extremely strong taboos against men caring for children. In addition, equally strong taboos have been developed to surpress any behaviors which might interfere with men's ability to protect and provide. In order to see these taboos clearly, we need to identify the main attributes of the ideal protector and provider.
An ideal male protector and provider must :
regard his life as more expendable than those he protects.
be able to surpress all forms of emotion other than "controlled" anger, especially in life threatening situations.
be able to stand on his own and not ask others for help.
accept that society sees his suffering as secondary to the suffering of those he protects.
accept that he will not be taken seriously by society if he complains about his physical and emotional needs.
derive his value and self worth solely from what he does rather than who he is.
It doesn't take a genius to see that these values are the very antithesis of the seven principles which the men's movement must adopt in order to change society's deeply held prejudices against men. Unfortunately, there are many people in the men's movement who are still blissfully unaware of the powerful role played by these strong societal forces in defining the male gender role. Their lack of awareness of these underlying forces means that they often reinforce the already strong prejudices against men.
When I see the incredible dichotomy between what is required to end the wide-spread prejudices against men and what many in society believe, I am forced to confront the political dimension of men's struggle for justice. As a result, I have formed the Australian Men's Party to fight the powerful political forces which, I believe, are dedicated to opposing the changes which are necessary to end the injustices against men. I am hoping that the party will act as a voice for others who have also recognized the political dimension to men's struggle for justice and who are no longer afraid to speak out.