Ally Fogg’s excelled himself with this piece. Thankfully it’s a fairly short one, but if I had to select one paragraph as being particularly idiotic, it would be this one:
What is most gratifying in that panel, however, is the inclusion of the phrase ‘man up’ which is a particular bugbear of mine. It not only polices masculine gender norms in a very restrictive and damaging way (no surprise to see the wonderful mental health and suicide prevention charity CALM tweeting their praise this morning), the phrase also serves to exclude women and girls from certain levels of attainment.
How is it that anyone (male or female) telling a boy (or man) to ‘man up’ in the course of time ‘serves to exclude women and girls from certain levels of attainment’? We aren’t told. It just does, right? Because Fogg has said it does, and he writes for the Guardian, so we can be sure he’s not wrong.
It’s predictable that Fogg would term CALM ‘wonderful’. It’s been led from the outset (2006) by Jane Powell, the most obnoxious radical feminist I’ve ever met. Within seconds of meeting her – her expression, suggesting she’d just chewed on a thick slice of lemon, led me to assume she was a radfem – she informed me she was a ‘fervent feminist’ whose greatest life achievement had been protesting at Greenham Common.
As you’d expect of an organization led by a radfem, the majority of the staff members are women – six out of seven, in fact – here. The sole man in the outfit is the Web Developer. Hey, isn’t CALM reinforcing gender stereotypes there? Couldn’t they have found a woman to do the job, to ensure 100% gender purity in the organization?
From the CALM website:
Why are the stats (on suicide) for men so high?
We believe that there are social and cultural barriers that prevent men from speaking out. From feedback we’ve received, and research conducted, men often say that they don’t feel comfortable expressing how they feel if they’re having a shit time, as they’re expected to be strong at all times, and not being so equates to weakness or failure as a man.
This is outrageous victim blaming, essentially saying that if men acted in a way typical of women, the problem of male suicide would be solved – a radical feminist perspective. When I met Jane Powell I challenged the perspective, asking what her helpline staff would offer men denied access to their children, denied support as victims of domestic violence, and more. She stared sullenly at the table, and had nothing to say in response.
The principal reason the male suicide rate is so high is perfectly simple – reactive depression. There’s a link to my article on the matter for the International Business Times in this piece, which ends with a reference to Fogg.
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I can certainly see this being used to drive down real wages in the public sector, as dirty dangerous and physically demanding low skill jobs such as refuse collection are equated to safe indoor jobs, such as cleaner or dinner server and lose any hardship premium.
Men will of course need to be excluded from the safe indoor jobs, otherwise why would they continue to damage their health doing the unpleasant jobs, but of course sex discrimination is perfectly acceptable as long as it disadvantages men.
Whenever I read that sort of nonsense (idiotic and unsupported assertions such as ‘the phrase also serves to exclude women and girls from certain levels of attainment‘) I picture a room full of gullible simpletons attending a social justice seminar, a white board equipped facilitator eagerly encouraging any daft assertion that might be used in evidence with an over excited “yes, yes, good, good, well done Tracy (or whoever)” and beaming a stupid, wild-eyed grin at everyone.
What I find saddest about such gatherings is that ‘Tracy’, invariably fat and frumpy and not too bright, will sparkle with delight in the coffee break, convinced that she has contributed something valuable to the sum of human knowledge and the improvement of the human condition.