I am Man - Hear Me Roar

For the last 100 years, society has made a giant leap in eliminating the inequalities that had existed between men and women.  Today, women are able to choose their profession, marry who they want, and have the liberty to be who they want to be.  While much can be said about these achievements, little has been written about their costs.  For the last 50 years, many of the struggles surrounding men have not only been forgotten, but they have been ignored.  Society's strive to create a society free of any sexual bias has placed many barriers and restrictions on men, and put much emphasis towards women and their struggles.  My  issues surrounding society's inequalities towards men can be put in two categories: judicial and education.

Our judicial system has a strong sexual bias towards men in both criminal and civil courts.  In criminal courts, men are more likely to be handed harsher sentences than their female counterparts.  This bias can clearly  be seen in cases of statutory rape - male offenders are seen as monsters, while female offenders are victims of psychological issues or abusive relationships. 

This "poor victim" had sex with her student

Another example of sexual bias in criminal courts involves men accused of sexual harassment.  Whether the male is accused of rape or workplace sexual harassment, he is placed in a position where he must prove his innocence not only to the courts, but also to society. Society's bias towards men can also be seen in divorce courts where females are far more likely than men to be awarded spousal support, and child custody.

My other issue surrounding society's bias towards men is through our education system.  For the last 50 years, our education system has radically changed to allow females to succeed and have a post-secondary education.  Due to these strives,  women have outnumbered  men in post education and post graduate courses.  While women have surpassed men in education, our society continues to strive to eliminate any disparity men many have over women in certain subjects.  An example of this is Math.  Teachers have been instructed to include other subjects -such as English- in their Mathematics to allow their female students to score higher; however, educators have failed to add cross-curricular work in subjects that are often dominated by females.  

In subjects such as English, children are encouraged to read books they like; however, the books that are popular and available are often written by women and geared towards them.  Even books that are directed towards boys -such as Harry Potter Books - are often filled with pictures or written by women and fail to have the connection many banned books such as Crusoe and Huckleberry Finn may have.  This is of grave concern to me because society is ignoring an important social issue.  In many communities - such as African-Canadians and new immigrants - male high school graduation rates fall below 50%.  It is crucial for us to recognize the problems that exists in our educations system and act on them rather than continuing down this path and ignoring this new plague that exists.

I told you! Edward was the vampire....bitch

In essence, our society's strive to create equality has forced us to ignore many of the issues surrounding men.  It is crucial for organizations to bring these issues to light so that our society can recognize the disparities and act upon them.

Flush out