Two recent examples of why #feminism is necessary, and where our focus should be: [ultraorthodox Jews in Israel](https://twitter.com/Fauerzaesp/status/1695553905466179634) and [Islamists in Iran](https://twitter.com/omid9/status/1696215393885462963).
(* _Allegedly_; I don't trust tweets without attribution; time, places and circumstances may be wrong.)
Sometimes there is progress:
> _“It’s men, not women, who are now underrepresented in universities. Women in the United States have earned more bachelor’s degrees than men every year since the mid-1980s. Last fall, #women made up 59.2% of all those enrolled in a college or #university, and men made up only 40.8%. Women are also outperforming their male peers earning higher GPAs in high school and college, even in the male-dominated STEM fields. […] Efforts to help women in college are no longer necessary and are unfair to men. […] These initiatives [are] apparently illegal under Title IX. #TitleIX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. […] For the same reasons that universities can’t offer sports to #men only, they can’t offer awards solely to women.”_
[In vitro gametogenesis](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mice-with-two-fathers-researchers-develop-egg-cells-from-male-mice1/) (expected to happen in 5–25 years) will give #women yet another tool to increase their reproductive options. (Not so much men — gay or straight — as a woman are still needed for gestation.)
Today, women don't need a committed partner, or even a one-night stand. They can freeze their eggs and postpone maternity. They can get regular eggs from a donor for free (or the best ones paying money). They can get regular sperm from a donor for free (or the best one paying money; ie pick and choose a “father” online). They alone decide about abortion. They can have their partners raise a child that is not their own. They can give birth alone, leave “name of the father” blank on the form, and nobody even bothers to find out whether there might be an unwilling father out there, or questions the merits of deciding to raise a kid without a father.
Men can't do any of that.
Talk about “reproductive rights”.
An [artificial womb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_womb) will the be biggest advance in favour of #men. It might be the great equalizer. Gestation will cease to be a burden, a risk, and a privilege exclusive to women. Imagine a single man becoming a father, and nobody even asking him “who's the mother?” or “who donated the eggs?” (Sounds heartless, sad, creepy? It's just what we have now, only with the sexes reversed.)
#ArtificialWombs are not expected to arrive any time soon, though.
This proves that strong criticism of modern #feminism is not a fringe position in 2023 by any means, and that _even among women_ and _even among the youngest generation_ a large proportion of people (ranging from ⅓ to ½) are sceptical, resisting, or noticing discrimination against #men.
It's [a 32-country survey of 22+K adults](https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/international-womens-day-global-opinion-remains-committed-gender-equality-half-now-believe-it) by #Ipsos (the world’s third largest research agency) and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership (King’s College London).
Not all aggregates are representative because some countries with large populations (eg India, China, Indonesia) probably skew less feminist than others. But even the figures for specific Western democracies (and those _are_ accurate) show less than clear enthusiasm, even from women themselves.
This will be surprising.
To some people.
First it was #LouisePerry's [case against the sexual revolution](https://www.louisemperry.co.uk/).
Then came #MaryHarrington's [reactionary feminism](https://swiftpress.com/book/feminism-against-progress/).
TIL about #ChristineEmba [rethinking sex](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622579/rethinking-sex-by-christine-emba/).
What's going on?
I pick up the #kids from school, take them to the park where I play with them and give them their afternoon snack, take them home, keep them busy for a while, bathe them in turns, prepare and give them dinner, clear up the kitchen a bit, brush their teeth, prepare a baby bottle, read them a story in bed and get them to sleep. And at the time of writing these lines they are still alive. (My wife has a long work day plus some appointments today — other times it's the other way around, of course.)
After all that I feel superhuman.
I'm not asking for a medal or anything: this is my responsibility, and I chose this life.
But it makes me realise that in spite of all my complaints about modern #feminism (and boy do I have some complaints about modern feminism) and my tireless defence of men and fathers, it's clear that
#MUMS ARE FUCKING AWESOME, AND THEY HAVE BEEN AWESOME FOR MILLENNIA.
Much respect.
It's amazing that we're not amazed by those instances of #GammaBias. What the hell are they thinking?
> _“Of all journalists killed in 2021, 11% were women. In 2020, this was 6%. (Source: @UNESCO). On the International Day to #EndImpunity for Crimes against Journalists, let us say out loud: 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍 𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐒. #ProtectJournalists”_
🇪🇸 #Spain #university #education #gender #feminism
Sources: _Ministerio de Universidades_ ([1](https://public.tableau.com/views/Academica20_EEU/InfografiaEEU?%3AshowVizHome=no&%3Aembed=true#7); [2](https://www.universidades.gob.es/stfls/universidades/Estadisticas/ficheros/DyC_2021_22.pdf))
I shall shut up about this topic at least for a while now, but for anyone out there still thinking that #MRA's and other critics of mainstream #feminism and of the concepts of #patriarchy and #maleprivilege are some kind of delusional misogynists amplifying trifles for the sake of controversy: please spend a few minutes reviewing the data (not _opinion_ — _data_) contained here:
* [Very brief list of #men and #boys' issues](http://empathygap.uk/)
* [A more detailed account](http://empathygap.uk/?page_id=22)
* [List of posts by subject, linking to sources — from imprisonment to health to job fatalities to educational attainment](http://empathygap.uk/?page_id=2244)
* [Published research about #gammabias summing it all up](https://sci-hub.st/10.1007/978-3-030-04384-1_5)
apropos:
> _“The heroism performed mainly by men (e.g. firemen) will be #gender neutralised ('firefighters') by the inclusion of a small minority of #women, whereas a much larger proportion of female perpetrators and male victims will be excluded from our highly gendered narratives and policies about sexual and domestic violence. Such cognitive distortions, we believe, are leading to a systematic exaggeration of the negative aspects of men and #masculinity within mainstream culture, and a minimisation of positive aspects. These embedded distortions could be having a significantly harmful impact on the psychological health of #boys and #men and therefore on our society as a whole.”_
https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-33/april-2020/gamma-bias-new-theory
Because of things like this and worse still happening in the heart of the most advanced continent in the world, and in spite of so much nonsense attached to the label, I still call myself a #feminist.
A Spanish fishing boat sunk in the Atlantic. It carried 24 men. Only three survived. Ten died, and eleven are missing (presumably dead too).
In this tragic incident, men are as overrepresented as is mathematically possible. The “gender gap” here would be literally infinite.
This is how the top five Spanish newspaper by circulation (thus with different political views and biases) reported initially the event :
[El Mundo](https://www.elmundo.es/espana/2022/02/15/620b966efc6c83c1648b45b3.html),
[ABC](https://www.abc.es/espana/galicia/abci-varios-muertos-hundirse-barco-gallego-aguas-terranova-202202151242_noticia.html),
[El País](https://elpais.com/espana/2022-02-15/varios-muertos-en-un-naufragio-de-un-pesquero-gallego-en-terranova.html),
[La Vanguardia](https://www.lavanguardia.com/sucesos/20220215/8058385/muertos-hundimiento-barco-gallego-terranova-canada.html),
[20 Minutos](https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/4957129/0/varios-muertos-al-hundirse-un-barco-gallego-con-24-tripulantes-frente-a-la-costa-de-terranova/).
How many times does the word **_“hombre(s)”_ (“man/men”)** appear in the bodies of all the articles, in total? **Zero**. Not a single mention anywhere.
How many times does the word **_“mujer(es)”_ (“woman/women”)** appear? **Three**. Once in _ABC_, twice in _20 Minutos_ (to refer to the wives of two of the fishermen).
How many times the non-gendered word **_“persona(s)”_ (“person(s)”)**? **Ten times**. Non-gendered **_“marinero(s)”_ (“sailor(s)”)**? **17 times**. Non-gendered **_“tripulante(s)”_ (“crew member(s)”)**? **28 times**.
Your homework: find comparable events, statistics, or areas of life where the imbalance is very large (or even just large) against women, and where media coverage uses only non-gendered words or in some other ways leaves out entirely all information about gender composition.
Technologist, Spaniard, male, 42