As I sat down to write this review it was announced on the radio that women might be given special status as refugees if it could be shown that they would suffer sexual harassment if sent back from whence they came. Ah, I thought, right up Thomas's street. And of course he would have a point 'Why not men as well?'
The message of this book is that women get a better deal than men. In eleven chapters covering different areas of men's lives, from suicide rates to transvestism to fatherhood, Thomas argues that women get better health care, cervical smears for example, but there are no statutory prostate checks. Women's 'issues' get more media coverage, women live longer and retire earlier, and suicide rates, (men 70%), are much lower. Finally, the women's movement has meant that men stand 'accused' as society's bad guys.
Well, anyone who really thought about it would know that women do partake in many unpleasant acts and are capable of brutality, just like men. But, most men would also recognise that they get a good deal.
Unlike Lyndon's unfortunate and bitter ramblings, Thomas is more insidious. Men as we know suffer emotionally, mentally, physically, socially. I work with them daily, I feel angry, sad, unhappy, we all do.
The problem with Thomas is not dealing with the issue of men suffering. In his chapter, Absent Fathers, Violent Sons he does this well. It is his connection and comparison with women's suffering as opposed to men's that presents the real difficulties.
Women are so hugely disadvantaged structurally, politically, and legally. A few male suicides more do not really make a case against male violence. Women occupy 80% of the country's worst jobs, they are in the biggest poverty traps and what about the Government and the Trade Unions, and so forth....
I felt like saying it's alright David, we have our problems but women aren't our problem here. We can understand ourselves without attacking women, however politely we do it. There have been changes, yes, but the playing field is not nearly even yet mate.
Emblazoned on the back cover is a comment by one of Thomas's 'expert witnesses', P.J. O'Rourke, that great supporter of Reagan, who wrote about this book, '..a Charge of the Light Brigade against the batteries of current wisdom'. Well, of the 600 odd Men of the Light Brigade who charged, less than 200 returned. One wonders if women would have been so silly. But then those who survived had Florence Nightingale to look after them didn't they!
Nigel Larcombe
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