Letter: Discrimination against men need not concern feminists

Editor,

Feminism is concerned with gender equality for women - I say this as someone who identifies as a feminist.

Conservatives claim that if women believed in gender equality, they would seek to alleviate men's over-representation in statistics of well-being. If feminists believed in gender equality, anti-feminists say, they would be outraged about the anti-father nature of family law, or the fact that only 43 percent of college students are male, 97 percent of United States military fatalities in Iraq are male, 91 percent of workplace deaths are of men and that popular culture routinely denigrates men.

The reference to discrimination against men in family law is probably the most glaringly anti-feminist in my opinion. I'm not a family with law scholar by any stretch, but I think that is definitely an area where if feminists really want men to take their roles as fathers seriously - that presumes they don't already - feminists would work to make it more equitable.

The other scenarios such critics use over and over again to describe the lack of gender equality for men - college enrollments, military and workplace deaths - are interesting. I don't really see a problem with college enrollment among men being down because they still make more money than women - well, white men make more than white women do.

So men's declining numbers in college enrollment is a distinct trend, but I'm more concerned with how this translates into earning potential later in life - so far, we haven't seen it hurt men. Workplace and military deaths are gender-specific because work is gender-segregated - especially the military. The military didn't want women to be a part of it, so I think it is hardly fair to blame feminists for not being concerned with this trend. Further, the military's job is, well, to kill people. So when people die, should we be surprised?

And men are more likely to die on the job because they do more dangerous labor than women. Again, the unions for such careers put up a big fight and didn't want women in.

So blaming women or feminists for their lack of fighting for gender equality isn't quite fair, in my humble opinion. For all the television I watch, I have noticed this men-as-idiots theme. Is this funny to women? It isn't to me, but then are we really looking to popular culture for insight into how to lead our lives? Let's hope not. Not that media isn't important in our lives, but give the viewers at home some credit about how to understand corporate images.

In all, I think there is little cause for fear on the part of those who worry about the erosion of men's roles and portrayals, and there is no reason to think feminists are on the wrong side of the debate over women in the workplace and the military.

John Bunke

Daily Lobo reader