Today is International Women’s Day, which might be OK if this were really an honest effort to recognize the important contributions of women, mainly in the areas of lingerie, homemaking and child-bearing.
But we know there are sinister motives at play here.
As we have observed in other efforts to call attention to one group, the real motive is often to marginalize another group. Mississippians are especially attuned to this bit of misdirection.
When we hear “Black Lives Matter,” we rush to counter that dangerous sentiment by saying “All Lives Matter.” When Black History Month rolls around, we are quick to note that there is no White History Month.
When efforts are made to promote equal rights for LGBT people, we rightly observe that the real motive is to trample on our religious liberties.
These are all real problems, but this so-called International Women’s Day is particularly harmful.
No group is more oppressed, marginalized and stereo-typed than men, especially white men. They are unfairly blamed for just about everything. Yet when men protest, they are shouted down by agents of the powerful female agenda.
If you want to talk about how minorities are treated, let’s start with the minorities that the mainstream media never talks about: Men are a minority in our country, and white men are even more of a minority.
But minorities, well some minorities at least, have legitimate concerns that demand to be heard.
The assault on men can be seen in the most important positions in our country. The percentage of males in the U.S. Congress and Senate has dwindled to a mere 80 percent. In Mississippi, we have fought the good fight. Even so, just 87 percent of our state legislators are men.
This, of course, is wrong. We know this because nobody ever talks about our “Founding Mothers.” No, the people who built the framework for our wonderful country were all men and they had very clear ideas about a man’s role in government. As we know, our Founding Fathers were infallible in their judgments, as we note in their views on such things as Gun Rights and Slavery. So when you question their judgments on the role of men in our country, you are really tearing at the fabric of our nation.
Clearly, it is time for Patriotic American Men to speak out, yet we must be strategic in our male advocacy.
If we protest too strenuously, we risk being judged as “hysterical” or “shrill” or “extremist.” Yet if we speak too softly, we are ignored by the enemy and judged by our own male brethren as being too submissive and are suspected of being an ally of the other side.
We must also be aware of not just our speech and actions, but our appearance. As we know, females put great stock in how we look. Even there, a delicate balance must be maintained. If we are too heavy or unattractive, our arguments are considered to be a function of our resentment over our lack of sex appeal. On the other hand, if we are too handsome and fit, we are dismissed as mere eye candy and are not taken seriously. We often are even viciously attacked for our appearance by other men, which is also painful.
If we object to being viewed as objects, we are told that we are being over-sensitive, that we can’t take a joke – or perhaps – we can’t take a compliment.
If we demand the right to make choices about our own bodies, we are demonized in the worst sort of way. If we insist that issues pertaining to our maleness be taken seriously, we are called “divisive” and ungrateful for all the wonderful advantages that have been bestowed of us by virtue of our maleness.
As anyone can plainly see, our suffering is real.
So on this International Women’s Day, we remember the plight on the long abused and misunderstood American Male.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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