Men have responded in complex and contradictory ways to the profound changes of the last decade, changes set in motion by the women's movements, changes in family organization, economic and social shifts and other forces.
Small numbers of men have responded by mobilizing in support of gender equality goals, changing their own behaviour and working with women to shift gender relations in progressive directions.
Yet other men have mobilized in opposition to the changes in gender with which it is associated, forming "men's rights" and "fathers rights" groups. Of course for Malawi it has not come to pass yet I guess the men have not plucked enough courage to talk collectively and in public about what they hate about the fight for gender equality.
But for the west an organized backlash to the fight for gender equality is now visible among men in Australia, as in most other Western capitalist countries.
Men's rights men focus on the costs and destructiveness to men of masculine roles. They dispute the feminist idea that men (or some men)gain power and privilege in society, claiming that both women and men are equally oppressed or limited or even that women oppress men.
Men are "success objects" (like women are "sex objects") and burdened as providers, violence against men (through war, work and by women) is endemic and socially tolerated, and men are discriminated against in divorce and child custody proceedings.As far as "men's rights" are concerned, these men believe that men's right to a fair negotiation in child custody settlements, to a fair trial in domestic violence cases, and to fair treatment in the media have all been lost.
Responsibility and blame for these problems is attributed to women,the women's movements and feminism.Men's rights and fathers' rights advocates identify a wide range of injustices and harms suffered by men. Males have been displaced from the labour market, schools and universities, deprived of their role as fathers, and are now regarded only as 'gene pool and cash machine.
For some men's rights men, feminism has largely achieved its goals and women have more choices, while men are still stuck in traditional masculine roles. Thus feminism was once a 'human liberation' movement that now only looks after women.
For others, it never tried to liberate men, it has even tried to keep men in their traditional roles e.g. as providers, and "feminists" are involved in a conspiracy to discriminate against men and cover up violence against them.
Men's rights men share the goal of removing the social and legal injustices faced by men, and for most the main obstacle to achieving this is men's unjust treatment at the hands of women and feminists.
As Alan Barron's "Men's Manifesto" (2001) states, "We must vigorously defend the concept that male domination/patriarchy is part of the natural order of things."The men in men's rights and fathers' rights groups are typically in their forties and fifties, often divorced or separated, and nearly always heterosexual. Participants often are very angry, bitter and hurting (with good reason, they would say), and they often have gone through deeply painful marriage breakups and custody battles.Research among divorced men finds that some respond to the stresses and turmoil of divorce by adopting a masculinity discourse: they focus on their 'rights' and their victimization, attempt to retain control over their former wives, and respond to the undermining of their paternal authority with strategies of parental and financial withdrawal. I am reminded of Grace Chinga Moffat saga. Custody of children went to the mother and I can imagine how the father must have felt about the whole thing. Can it not make hate his wife and the whole idea of feminism
Thursday, September 20, 2007
The First Vaccine against Cervical Cancer
I thought we should take another look at cervical cancer. From the look of things Malawi seems to be one of the most affected countries and it high time us women plucked up enough courage to go for a test. So as we contemplate about going for a paps smear let hear about this new vaccine.
On June 8, 2006 the FDA approved the first-ever vaccine against cancer: Gardasil. In clinical trials Gardasil, manufactured by Merck, has been 100% effective in preventing infection with HPV strains 16 and 18, which together cause 70% of cervical cancer cases. The vaccine is also 99% effective in preventing HPV strains 6 and 11, which together with strains 16 and 18 cause about 90% of genital wart cases. Gardasil also protects against vaginal and vulva cancers, two other gynecological cancers that also are linked to HPV, according to another study.
I hear this vaccine is a significant advance in the protection of women's health in that it strikes at the infections that are the root cause of many cervical cancers. The vaccine is expected to have a dramatic effect on women's health worldwide, where cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women; and is estimated to cause over 470,000 new cases and 233,000 deaths each year.
HPV
HPV is the slowly becoming the most common sexually transmitted infection in the country according to statistics.
Who Gets the Vaccine
As Gardasil is most effective in women who have never been exposed to HPV, it should be given to young girls before they are sexually active. The vaccine is approved for children as young as 9 and the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will determine to whom and when it should be administered. The ACIP's vaccine group is recommending girls 11 – 12 should be given the vaccine and there's some discussion about giving it to young boys, as well. While men can't get cervical cancer, HPV would be much less likely to spread if both sexes were vaccinated.
Reaction
It seems apparent that the first vaccine against cancer should be highly celebrated. And for that first vaccine to be against a cancer only women can get is pretty spectacular when you consider it is something that wouldn't have occurred just 15 years ago when women's health concerns weren't studied apart from men's. However, because the vaccine is technically for a virus that is transmitted sexually, some conservative groups oppose it. "Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful," Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council was quoted in New Scientist, "because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex." The logic here is about as sound as saying 16-year-olds' shouldn't be allowed to use seat belts because they might take that protection as license to drive recklessly.
On June 8, 2006 the FDA approved the first-ever vaccine against cancer: Gardasil. In clinical trials Gardasil, manufactured by Merck, has been 100% effective in preventing infection with HPV strains 16 and 18, which together cause 70% of cervical cancer cases. The vaccine is also 99% effective in preventing HPV strains 6 and 11, which together with strains 16 and 18 cause about 90% of genital wart cases. Gardasil also protects against vaginal and vulva cancers, two other gynecological cancers that also are linked to HPV, according to another study.
I hear this vaccine is a significant advance in the protection of women's health in that it strikes at the infections that are the root cause of many cervical cancers. The vaccine is expected to have a dramatic effect on women's health worldwide, where cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women; and is estimated to cause over 470,000 new cases and 233,000 deaths each year.
HPV
HPV is the slowly becoming the most common sexually transmitted infection in the country according to statistics.
Who Gets the Vaccine
As Gardasil is most effective in women who have never been exposed to HPV, it should be given to young girls before they are sexually active. The vaccine is approved for children as young as 9 and the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will determine to whom and when it should be administered. The ACIP's vaccine group is recommending girls 11 – 12 should be given the vaccine and there's some discussion about giving it to young boys, as well. While men can't get cervical cancer, HPV would be much less likely to spread if both sexes were vaccinated.
Reaction
It seems apparent that the first vaccine against cancer should be highly celebrated. And for that first vaccine to be against a cancer only women can get is pretty spectacular when you consider it is something that wouldn't have occurred just 15 years ago when women's health concerns weren't studied apart from men's. However, because the vaccine is technically for a virus that is transmitted sexually, some conservative groups oppose it. "Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful," Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council was quoted in New Scientist, "because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex." The logic here is about as sound as saying 16-year-olds' shouldn't be allowed to use seat belts because they might take that protection as license to drive recklessly.
Can men be the buddies of feminism or gender talk?
Yes they can, because feminism is a philosophy and a movement for ending all forms of oppression, including that which is gender-based. In fact, gender-sensitive men should very much feel a part of this movement.
In this article today I will try as much to clear the misconception that feminism is an anti-marriage, anti-family, and anti-men movement imported from the West. Men can also be feminists, because feminism is a philosophy and a movement for ending all forms of oppression, including gender-based oppression. It is not against family and marriage, as much as it is about transforming these institutions to weed out their inherent injustices. Men are not excluded from feminism; in fact, gender-sensitive men should very much feel a part of the feminist movement. USA based Joan Khan has defined feminism in the African context as "an awareness of women's oppression and exploitation in society, at work and within the family, and conscious action by women and men to change this situation". Therefore, a feminist is anyone who embraces this philosophy and espouses a commitment to end gender-based oppression. I would extend this definition to include other interlocking sources of oppression, such as class, caste, ethnicity and religions. These affect men too, but not to the same degree as women.
Gender does not just denote the female gender. Men are also gendered beings, and are affected in negative ways through the social construction of masculinity. Not all men are naturally hyper masculine, aggressive, competitive, and emotionally distant. Men should be bothered about ending women's oppression because it might also be a way of ushering in an alternative masculinity, and for blurring gender boundaries. Male and female genders don't need to be diametrically opposed. In a harmonious world, the dissolution of binary genders used to describe men and women may give way to a pluralistic, many-gendered world, where many shades of masculinities and femininities thrive and are accepted.
Sounds unnatural, anarchistic? Look at it as a re-definition of what we consider biologically determined or natural. Accepting the world as multi-gendered may make it more stable, peaceful and prosperous than insisting on a rigidly bi-gendered world. It may free men and women from performing their constricted gendered roles that are dualistic, rigidly defined, and ultimately destructive. Feminism challenges the binary construction of gender. It promotes freedom from constraints imposed on men and women by their gendered roles. It is social conditioning, not the biology of being male or female that burdens men as the sole providers of women, and conditions women to be dependent on men.
Mere recognition of injustice is not enough to end it. Recognition must be accompanied by action. The oppressor is in solidarity with the oppressed when he stops regarding the oppressed as an abstract category and sees them as persons who have been unjustly dealt with — when he stops making pious, sentimental and individualistic gestures, and risks an act of love."
Acts of love are not passive; they are passionate commitments to change. It is not enough for men to say that they are not personally involved in the oppression of women. This is passivity. Each time a woman is not allowed to reach her full personhood, each time a woman is abused in any way simply because she is a woman — beaten, raped, — and well-meaning men turn the other way, they participate in the ongoing oppression of women. For silence is a form of participation. Neglect is participation. And so is indifference. Neither silence, nor indifference, nor neglect are acts of love.
Silence, neglect, and indifference are indicative of the desire for the status quo to remain unchanged. When men side-line women's oppression as a non-issue, or as a women's issue to be dealt with by women, they are advocating that such oppression should continue, because risking their own involvement in the ending of women's subordination might threaten their present privileged positions.
What could pro-feminist men do as allies to enhance women's achievement of equity? As allies of the oppressed, pro-feminist or equality men need to become (actively) politically involved. Feminists believe that politically significant change begins in the home. Let's take a fresh look at the gendered division of labour in the home. Housework is work that is unacknowledged as work, since most of it is unpaid work done by women.
A pro-feminist man can't expect women to be entirely responsible for housework and childcare. Housework is work that has to be done to keep the family functioning. It is not just women's work. Active solidarity means pro-feminist men participate fully in sharing housework. And promote the idea of doing housework as an ideal among other men. Passive sympathising would be to feel sorry for his overworked partner, or at best, to suggest that she hire a maidservant.
An ally questions how his life would have been different if he were not male? How do his male privileges shield him from injustices? How has a lack of the same privileges withheld opportunities for advancement from women? How can he align himself with women's causes? This means breaking his silent allegiance with other men. Lastly, a male pro-feminist ally knows that he is not doing women a favour. He is clear that he is an ally in the interests of building a more egalitarian world.
Let me end with a quote from writer, activist and feminist, Bell Hooks: "When women and men understand that working to eradicate patriarchal domination is a struggle rooted in the longing to make a world where everyone can live fully and freely, then we know our work to be a gesture of love. Let us draw upon that love to heighten our awareness, deepen our compassion, intensify our courage, and strengthen our commitment." It is such committed love that male allies must offer to express solidarity with feminism.
In this article today I will try as much to clear the misconception that feminism is an anti-marriage, anti-family, and anti-men movement imported from the West. Men can also be feminists, because feminism is a philosophy and a movement for ending all forms of oppression, including gender-based oppression. It is not against family and marriage, as much as it is about transforming these institutions to weed out their inherent injustices. Men are not excluded from feminism; in fact, gender-sensitive men should very much feel a part of the feminist movement. USA based Joan Khan has defined feminism in the African context as "an awareness of women's oppression and exploitation in society, at work and within the family, and conscious action by women and men to change this situation". Therefore, a feminist is anyone who embraces this philosophy and espouses a commitment to end gender-based oppression. I would extend this definition to include other interlocking sources of oppression, such as class, caste, ethnicity and religions. These affect men too, but not to the same degree as women.
Gender does not just denote the female gender. Men are also gendered beings, and are affected in negative ways through the social construction of masculinity. Not all men are naturally hyper masculine, aggressive, competitive, and emotionally distant. Men should be bothered about ending women's oppression because it might also be a way of ushering in an alternative masculinity, and for blurring gender boundaries. Male and female genders don't need to be diametrically opposed. In a harmonious world, the dissolution of binary genders used to describe men and women may give way to a pluralistic, many-gendered world, where many shades of masculinities and femininities thrive and are accepted.
Sounds unnatural, anarchistic? Look at it as a re-definition of what we consider biologically determined or natural. Accepting the world as multi-gendered may make it more stable, peaceful and prosperous than insisting on a rigidly bi-gendered world. It may free men and women from performing their constricted gendered roles that are dualistic, rigidly defined, and ultimately destructive. Feminism challenges the binary construction of gender. It promotes freedom from constraints imposed on men and women by their gendered roles. It is social conditioning, not the biology of being male or female that burdens men as the sole providers of women, and conditions women to be dependent on men.
Mere recognition of injustice is not enough to end it. Recognition must be accompanied by action. The oppressor is in solidarity with the oppressed when he stops regarding the oppressed as an abstract category and sees them as persons who have been unjustly dealt with — when he stops making pious, sentimental and individualistic gestures, and risks an act of love."
Acts of love are not passive; they are passionate commitments to change. It is not enough for men to say that they are not personally involved in the oppression of women. This is passivity. Each time a woman is not allowed to reach her full personhood, each time a woman is abused in any way simply because she is a woman — beaten, raped, — and well-meaning men turn the other way, they participate in the ongoing oppression of women. For silence is a form of participation. Neglect is participation. And so is indifference. Neither silence, nor indifference, nor neglect are acts of love.
Silence, neglect, and indifference are indicative of the desire for the status quo to remain unchanged. When men side-line women's oppression as a non-issue, or as a women's issue to be dealt with by women, they are advocating that such oppression should continue, because risking their own involvement in the ending of women's subordination might threaten their present privileged positions.
What could pro-feminist men do as allies to enhance women's achievement of equity? As allies of the oppressed, pro-feminist or equality men need to become (actively) politically involved. Feminists believe that politically significant change begins in the home. Let's take a fresh look at the gendered division of labour in the home. Housework is work that is unacknowledged as work, since most of it is unpaid work done by women.
A pro-feminist man can't expect women to be entirely responsible for housework and childcare. Housework is work that has to be done to keep the family functioning. It is not just women's work. Active solidarity means pro-feminist men participate fully in sharing housework. And promote the idea of doing housework as an ideal among other men. Passive sympathising would be to feel sorry for his overworked partner, or at best, to suggest that she hire a maidservant.
An ally questions how his life would have been different if he were not male? How do his male privileges shield him from injustices? How has a lack of the same privileges withheld opportunities for advancement from women? How can he align himself with women's causes? This means breaking his silent allegiance with other men. Lastly, a male pro-feminist ally knows that he is not doing women a favour. He is clear that he is an ally in the interests of building a more egalitarian world.
Let me end with a quote from writer, activist and feminist, Bell Hooks: "When women and men understand that working to eradicate patriarchal domination is a struggle rooted in the longing to make a world where everyone can live fully and freely, then we know our work to be a gesture of love. Let us draw upon that love to heighten our awareness, deepen our compassion, intensify our courage, and strengthen our commitment." It is such committed love that male allies must offer to express solidarity with feminism.
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