So when feminist spoke about a change in men and society – yeah men as group need to change – people need to change. I Still think that in may ways early feminism as today really lacks teaching skills as it is with boys. The concepts and ideas don’t ground them nor do they have the conceptual frame work at certain ages to handle the feminist ideology.

However: With regards to Swedish gender politics, the biased reporting is so common that you rarely see a unbiased article, let alone one that is biased pro men (except in the sports pages).

Yes, men who grow up with feminism need to reclaim their power, since male power is always linked to a negative phenomenon in the feminist discourse (male violence, patriarchal power structures, etc).

We need to reintroduce male pride, as strange as that might sound to a postmodern feminist.

Teaching men that there’s something wrong with them, simply because they are men, is a horrible thing to do, but that is exactly what feminism has done.

Pelle

Just to zoom out a little and take a wider view of things: I think there’s some validity to a claim that violence is inherent in the masculine makeup. That’s evolutionarily determined. But this violence - or perhaps anger is a better word - is only destructive in its immature form.

What we see now, as women turn increasingly masculine, is that some of them access the archetypes of boy psychology (sometimes also man psychology), which has them channel their hurt in aggressive and destructive ways.

And since boys - and men - have been shamed, we don’t dare to access the mature anger - man psychology anger - inherent in the masculine makeup. We don’t dare access it, because we are afraid to be vilified. We have essentially been castrated, free only to access the feminine and the passive sides of boy psychology.

The end result is that women are free to express masculine anger in the name of girl power, whereas men are not free to do much anything to defend themselves and stand up to the barrage, lest they be shamed and brandished violent brutes.

Of course, the strongest men find freedom within these social constraints as well (and feminists find them incredibly sexy of course), but there aren’t many of them. Most guys’ masculinity (in Scandinavia) barely survive, and they are hardly even aware of the cultural ruins of a manhood that was once praised for all its benevolent qualities, but that was sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.

Are you all cool with that?

Eivind

Personally I try to combine a few different methods for getting accurate information:

1. To actually see the source myself (such as a research paper) or to at least have the person making the claim refer to the source or quote from the source.

2. To check whether the claim actually makes sense, when you relate it to well known facts in various scientific disciplines.

3. Exposing hidden assumptions in people’s line of reasoning, such as when feminists claim that men are responsible for their own problems, but women are not. If you make such an assumption then the burden of proof rests squarely on you. This is actually one of the main problems with feminism; they make lots of assumptions and then they expect anyone who disagrees to prove that they are right.

Well I for one have lost all illusions about media (”traditional” or “new”) being “fair and unbiased”.

In fact there are numerous accounts were media consiously omitts important info, just to set an agenda. I dare say that gender politics is one such area, where this is more common than others.

The typical Swedish media has reported:

- “More girls ar failing math” (meaning “more girls than last year” (while “forgetting to mention” that still more boys than girls are failing)

- “Suicide attempts among girls is increasing” (not mentioning that still much more boys are commiting suicide)

- “Old male culture behind boy’s failures” (stating a “there seems to be” a culture of contempt against schoolwork among boys, and other unsupported claims on the “It’s the boys own fault” account)

…I have learned that to find ut more I need to search for more information. Neither “old media” nor the bloggs gives a full picture and they don’t even aspire to try.

Check out this material, supported by the US Department of Education.

This “antiharassment guide” suggests that teachers explain to students that “We need to understand how boys and men are learning to equate violent behavior with ‘manhood’ in order to de-link the concepts”.

There are several lesson designed to render boys aware of the ways males systematically inflict suffering on females. For example the following exercise: “Ask the students to close their eyes… Once they’ve closed their yees, say ‘Imagine that the woman you care about the most (your mother, sister, daughter, girlfriend) is being raped, battered or sexually abused… Give them at least 30 seconds to think abou the scenario before asking them to open their eyes”.

IMO, these kinds of exercises are appropriate for convicted sex criminals, but not for young boys who’ve come to school to be educated. Boys are deeply shamed by having such exercises be part of the curriculum.

The thing is, you pretty much need a whole book (or at least a couple of chapters) to “prove” how boys are shamed in schools, and it is beyond the scope of this blog post to provide all the background information. I’ve linked to the book that contains all the sources; beyond that, it’s up to you to verify the sources if you doubt them.

I haven’t accused feminism of bringing down the entire education system. Could you please tell me where I wrote that?

What Lessing was telling the Guardian *is* that feminism is shaming young boys. Did you read the quote, and the article?

If you want more research quotes, then start by checking out the book The War Against Boys. I may post a few sources myself later.