Idea of gender bias against men indefensible
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 26, 2001 9:00 p.m.
Hartwell graduated from UCLA in 2000 with a B.A. in
sociology.
By Douglas Hartwell
Marc Angelucci is too defensive in his submission, “Gender bias toward males frequently
gets overlooked” (Viewpoint, Feb. 20). His argument for
“gender bias against males” is as indefensible as
“racism towards whites.” The fact is that as a social
problem, neither exists. White males exercise the overwhelming
majority of the power in our society and enjoy the accompanying
privileges.
Angelucci speaks of “a prison slave labor market of
nonviolent criminals” to make claims about the
“devaluation of male lives,” stating as support the
statistic that “98 percent of death row inmates” are
men. First of all, anyone on death row should certainly not be
considered a “nonviolent criminal,” and secondly the
fact that death row inmates are overwhelmingly male may have
something to do with the fact that men, as a gender, are more
likely to embrace violence.
In this sense, the male gender is most responsible for the
“devaluation” of life in general.
Angelucci quotes Pradeep Ramanathan of the National Coalition of
Free Men with “gender is the most significant biasing factor
in determining whether or not someone will be charged, prosecuted,
indicted and sentenced.” I’m not sure I understand what
that means but I’m willing to concede that gender may play a
role in whether or not a person commits a violent crime ““ men
are more likely to resort to violence than women.
I would be very careful about who I relied on for my
information. I checked out Ramanathan and his organization’s
Web site and I don’t know about Angelucci, but I can’t
hang with these people. Among the thoughts expressed include many
attacks on a woman’s right to choose. Also, I found an attack
on “Take Our Daughters To Work Day” and a proposal for
a “Career Day for Our Sons.”
Gimme a break. The reason for a day devoted to our daughters is
because historically they haven’t had the opportunity to
pursue careers of their own ““ to “follow in
daddy’s footsteps.” Our sons have always enjoyed our
support and encouragement in this area.
The “Free Men” Web site (http://www.ncfm.org) goes
on to attack feminism as the cause of “America’s social
problems,”and seeks a “victory over PC (political
correctness),” and deals with the “false accusation of
rape problem” facing American men today, who are being
“legitimately enticed into what the feminists are calling
date rape.”
Attacks on affirmative action as a “deliberate policy of
race and sex discrimination” based on “the idea that
some atonement was needed on the part of white males” round
out the site’s list of beefs.
Angelucci goes to say “being male increases your chance of
receiving a death sentence for murder by more than 20 times.”
I am not a supporter of the death penalty, but not all
“murders” are created equal.
Different “degrees” are supposed to be punished
accordingly. He suggests that “stereotypes about women being
more innocent, more reformable, and less dangerous than men”
are behind “men getting screwed.” If men are getting
screwed, it’s because we’re doing it to ourselves.
Those stereotypes he refers to have been put in place and
reinforced in a male-dominated society. They are the flip side to
the male stereotypes of strength, power, and prowess that are used
in an effort to keep women simultaneously dependent upon and
subservient to men.
If such stereotypes happen to help keep a few women from the
death penalty, well, I’ll consider that to be this
cloud’s silver lining.
Angelucci’s observation of rapes occurring as often as
242,000 times in male prison populations as opposed to 5,000 times
annually in female populations, again, only underscores the culture
of violence embraced by that gender which depends upon it for
power.
While I find “unwanted sex” to be a perfectly valid
definition of rape, I do not for a moment believe Angelucci’s
assertion that when using this definition “men are raped by
women almost as often as the reverse.” You call for men to
“transcend their protector roles and resist,” but
men’s “protector roles” are a part of men’s
resistance ““ resistance to the legitimate struggle of women
for equal opportunity, equal protection under the law, and equal
respect in a society that doesn’t value or
“devalue” a person any more or less, based upon their
gender.
