A UK Member of Parliament recently suggested that there should be a Government minister for men which would presumably do similar things to the existsing minister for Women.
This has thrown up a series of heated discussions on social media about whether this is part of the 'backlash' against feminsm, or whether there is a legitimate need for wider support of men's issues.
As a man who believes that there are legitimate issues disproportionately affecting men which should be addressed, what I really want help in understanding is the opinion that men don't need any targetted support.
I don't want to start a big argument, but I do want to understand this perspective, because I have struggled to understand it before and I don't like feeling like I'm missing something.
As an American whose only knowledge of UK government comes from sporadic episodes of Politics Unboringed, my first thought would be to replace the Minister for Women with a Minister for Gender Equality. They would have all the powers and responsibilities of the Minister for Women, and also gain any powers and responsibilities that a hypothetical Minister for Men would need.
Sounds like a win-win to me, but again, I'm a dumb Yank lol
I'm afraid that Minister for Gender Equality is far, far more likely to be attacked as woke by the right than Minister for Women.
I'm unware of "woke" culture (or political terms such as right or left), but why would having a Gender Equality title be the target of attacks? A title like that should also, in theory, cover people who are transgendered, non-binary, intersex etc, so pretty much everyone in the country should be included. I'm not sure why "woke" people would take offence to this? Are they a gender that doesn't fit in any of the currently established genders or something? Wouldn't "woke" people also benefit from any decisions made by this minister, so why would they be offended?
It would be attacked as woke, not by woke.
So fucking what? Every little thing you propose will be attacked as something by some group. Then, if you're executing it correctly, they'll get bored and move on.
Chill. They did not understand the term. I clarified a bit. I did not state if it is good or bad.
Ah, right, sorry. My bad
No, the right wing attacks anything that's "woke". A ministry of gender equality would be labeled "woke" and attacked by the UK's right wing.
It's because they don't actually want equality, they want to maintain the status quo which is a power imbalance in favour of men.
A "minister for men" plays in to the false idea that men and women are equal and therefore a having only a "minister for women" is "unfair".
A "minister for gender equality" (so essentially what we have now, since the full job title is "minister for women and equalities") would still rely on acknowledging that there is gender inequality, and that doesn't feed in to the victim fantasy those who are fighting for this bullshit are trying to satisfy.