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| From The Swaddle- Indian Health, Gender and sexuality Magazine. |
I remember traveling with my wife’s cousin Dave and his family to a wedding. On the journey we listened to Radio 5 Live - to the sport! I realised what little opportunity I have had to do these ‘manly things’. My three girls would not countenance listening to ‘sport’ in the car. I have long been in a minority of one.
In 2019 Caroline Criado Perez wrote a book called “Invisible
Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.” In it she showed how many every day devices
have been designed for the average man, rather than ‘person’. This got me thinking. In my world there is a lot that is designed
primarily for women, not men. When I
visit a school, the signing in machine takes a picture of my upper chest, rather than my
face. Many of the children centres I
visit have posters extolling the virtue of breast feeding – ‘inadequacy
provoking’ messages for men. My FIAT 500
is clearly not designed for me. I cannot
see the speedometer because the steering wheel is in the way. So perhaps the opposite position exists, but I
reflect that most of these things are mild inconveniences, with no element of
power associated with them.
The men that talk about male emasculation are reacting to changes,
or shifts towards greater equality of power; fearing the eventual dominance of
women over men. They seem to forget to
notice how far along this scale we have come; not that far. For example 20% of professors in British
universities are women. 35% of MPs are
now women. And this proportion is
consistent across society. Of course
statistics are complex. Often women take
career breaks to care for children, and may not actually desire perches at the
top of the tree. Is the measure for equality
that women must hit the 50:50 mark? 69%
of Head teachers are women though this reduced to 38% when considering
secondary schools alone.
Worries about damaged masculinity are similar to fears about
the loss of English culture to multiculturism, or family values to Gay
rights. They overlook the fact that
other cultures are much more significantly impacted by the dominant culture
around them, and far more at risk. The
homosexual population was recently measured by the UK Office of National
Statistics at 3.1%.
This is a tiny minority who can only ever have a minute impact on
‘family values’ (whatever they are). We
have seen what majority cultures do in the UK with the slow disappearance of Cornish
as a language.
So what has changed?
Men have changed.
More men choose to care for their children. More men share childcare. More men are willing to do ‘female dominated
professions’, such as nursing and caring.
Women have changed.
With the advent of power tools such as tractors, women do not need the
physical strengthen demanded of many jobs in the past. Like the message presented in 2016 science
fiction novel called ‘The Power’ by Naomi Alderman, women do have some redress
to violence committed against them by some men.
Colonel Jamila Bayaz, Kabul’s first female Police Chief appointed
during freer days, was asked how she stayed safe in a city where many did not
accept her authority. She replied that
“Men do what I say when they see that I carry a gun, and am prepared to use
it.”
Sex equality has largely progressed because women have demanded
it. This is despite that fact that
equality ultimately benefits all in the long run.
Gender and Race (based on skin tone) are both subconsciously
detected from earliest youth. This can
be noticed when an initial supposition of race or gender is found to be
incorrect. My dual-heritage friend with
a very British sounding name as told me of many a time people have confided
racist opinions in him, without realising how personally insulting they were
being. So noticing gender has a
biological premise. Alfred Kinsey, born
1894 in America, was famous for developing the ‘Kinsey Scale’, that posited
that everyone has masculine and feminine sexuality to some degree and these fit
roughly onto a scale. Kinsey developed a
scoring system to determine where you fit on the scale. It is a free test available online at https://www.idrlabs.com/kinsey-scale/test.php
Snell,
Belk and Hawkins (1986) published a measure to identify Masculine and
feminine traits, and behaviours. Looking
back 40 years reveals that these concepts are socially determined and may now
appear dated.
Across history we see times when Masculinity and Femininity
swing into dominance. During the time of
Henry VIII, the large prominent cod piece as all the rage. When Queen Bess came to the throne, the cod
piece became a rather flat ‘fish like’ thing.
Women have long been told to wear dresses in the West, but upper-class Georgian
men showed off their fine legs, and wore make up.
These days, women can be ‘masculine’ without much ado. Female clothing included ‘boy-friend jeans’,
and shirts that button as male shirts are supposed to. From the 60’s some men have reached out towards
feminine designs too. Currently there is
a move to lower the status of gender. “I
am first a person and second a male/female.”
Is that a problem?
I think that the talk about ‘gender’ is often nothing to do
with gender. I think it is more to do
with an inner sense of insecurity, both within the individual, and also within
groups. Young people find that as individuals
they feel insignificant. They have
little power, authority or wealth. ‘Together’,
in a gang, there is a sense of shared power.
The mood, attitude and behaviour of the group can often be secondary to
this. If the group has a good spirit,
all well and good. If it is malevolent,
the worse aspects of masculinity are manifest.
