City Journal contributing editor and former New York Times columnist John Tierney has written a terrific piece debunking what he calls the misogyny myth, namely, the claim that contemporary western societies are riddled with prejudice and discrimination against women. On the contrary, John argues, it is men that get the short end of the stick.
Here’s how John summarises his article
Contrary to what you see in the press (or Barbie), misogyny is not rampant in modern societies. There is no evil patriarchy oppressing women. Quite the reverse: Both men and women are guilty of misandry, a bias against men. My City Journal article reviews the overwhelming evidence (ignored or suppressed by misandrist journalists and scholars) of bias against men, from the ‘women are wonderful’ effect reported by psychologists to the discrimination against men in the legal system, government, schools, corporations, and academia.
This misandrist bias is probably innate, and it’s being exploited by a diversity industry that falsely blames sexism for any gender gap not favouring women. Yes, women are ‘underrepresented’ in some fields, especially at the top, but it’s not because of discrimination. It’s because of factors like the ‘gender productivity gap’ and the ‘competition gap’ (which explains why scientists in the 99th percentile of productivity are disproportionately male, and why 95 of the top 100 Scrabble players are men). The misogyny myth serves the interests of the diversity industry, but it’s enormously damaging to the rest of society — women as well as men — because it poisons relations between the sexes and undermines the system that has provided unprecedented opportunities and prosperity to everyone: meritocracy.
And here’s an extract:
‘Toxic masculinity’ and ‘testosterone poisoning’ are widely blamed for many problems, but you don’t hear much about ‘toxic femininity’ or ‘estrogen poisoning’. Who criticises ‘femsplaining’ or pretends to ‘believe all men’? If the patriarchy really did rule our society, the stock father character in television sitcoms would not be a ‘doofus dad’ like Homer Simpson, and commercials wouldn’t keep showing wives outsmarting their husbands. (When’s the last time you saw a TV husband get something right?) Smug misandry has been box-office gold for Barbie, which delights in writing off men as hapless romantic partners, leering jerks, violent buffoons, and dimwitted tyrants who ought to let women run the world.
Numerous studies have shown that both sexes care more about harms to women than to men. Men get punished more severely than women for the same crime, and crimes against women are punished more severely than crimes against men. Institutions openly discriminate against men in hiring and promotion policies – and a majority of men as well as women favour affirmative-action programs for women.
The education establishment has obsessed for decades about the shortage of women in some science and tech disciplines, but few worry about males badly trailing by just about every other academic measure from kindergarten through graduate school. By the time boys finish high school (if they do), they’re so far behind that many colleges lower admissions standards for males – a rare instance of pro-male discrimination, though it’s not motivated by a desire to help men. Admissions directors do it because many women are loath to attend a college if the gender ratio is too skewed.