Isabel Hardman's article for the Spectator, Save the male, Britain's crisis of masculinity, was welcomed by David Wilkins but comments descended into the usual battle. David sets the record straight.
It's good to see this article, which is well argued, well researched and well balanced. At the Men's Health Forum we've spend the last 15 years working hard to improve outcomes in one area of life where men undoubtedly do less well than overall than women – that is in physical health. There is also a very strong argument to be made that we are failing men and boys in mental health and we have done a great deal of work in that area too.
It is frustrating therefore that whenever the problems of men are highlighted in any serious way, the comments boards descend instantly into a predictable battle between misogynists and anti-feminists on the one side (mostly men, one imagines), and on the other side, those people of both sexes who hold the entrenched view that only men are privileged and only women can be disadvantaged. It has happened again here.
Our experience suggests that where one sex does less well than the other, there are invariably complex causes associated with individual behaviours, cultural norms, social policy and legislative frameworks. These things won't be changed by people shouting at each other on message boards or by people simply ignoring evidence that doesn't confirm their pre-existing world view. It is likewise a recipe for stagnation to hold to the absurd belief that all problems for women are caused by men and that all problems for men are caused by women (or even just by 'feminists' for that matter).
The solution is for both men and women to recognise that inequalities affect both sexes and to understand that tackling inequalities affecting one sex does not disadvantage the other. In other words, it's not a competition. Indeed it is the reverse. If we can improve educational outcomes for boys for example, that will be of benefit to women. If we can eliminate discrimination against women in the workplace, that will benefit men . . . and so on and so on.
Most men have women in their lives that they love and for whom they want the fairest, safest, healthiest and most well educated kind of society. Most women have men about whom they feel exactly the same. We are all in this together.
