Around the time he published his most recent and to date most
radical book, The Myth of Male Power, Warren Farrell released
these audiocassettes of the same title. Farrell's own
recommendation of these tapes as the second step in educating the
uninitiated about men's rights (the tapes of Why Men Are the Way
They Are being the first step) is very well-taken. Information
and philosophy are presented engagingly, accessibly, with little
fluff or fanfare. Indeed, given Farrell's measured, reasonable
voice and carefully presented, step-by-step documentation of his
positions, the listener could be forgiven for momentarily failing
to notice just how radical a vision of men's position these tapes
present. It is only by reference to the current, twisted state of
gender politics that one can even understand why Farrell's common-
sense, compassionate, incisive approach is seen by some as so
"dangerous."
The truth is that these tapes ARE dangerous. They imperil the
listener's ability ever again to believe many of the whoppers
masquerading as received truths about the "patriarchy," the alleged
lower moral fiber of men relative to women, men's supposedly
greater power, and many other myths. Farrell reminds us that
neither gender wins unless both sexes win.
The tapes take the form of a dialog between the author and a male
interviewer who leaves no feminist stone unturned in his scrutiny
of Farrell's position. A former three-time New York City National
Organization of Women board member, Farrell has no difficulty
acknowledging the areas where women truly have been oppressed. But
he also is not afraid to demolish some of the favored shibboleths
about women's suffering. For example, when experience, job
requirements, and attractiveness of jobs are taken into account,
women do NOT earn less than men. With the exception of rape, the
more violent a crime, the more likely a MAN is to be the victim.
Female heads of households have on average 141% the level of assets
owned by male heads of households. Women also control most
spending. Men are not inherently violent and will curb their
natural protective instincts where three basic needs--adequate
food, adequate water, and safety from attack---are met. Male
violence, Farrell shows, is a response to powerLESSNESS, not power.
Farrell is not afraid of even the most potentially controversial
issues. A detailed comparison between the position of men and
blacks supports his provocative position that in many ways men are
treated as slaves today. (We work longer hours, die sooner, and
lose our children.) Nor is he afraid to say the emperor of
feminist hypocrisy has no clothes. He notes that many women (and
men) complain about men's killing while living in the countries and
on the property obtained as a result of this killing.
Farrell addresses some topics that are rarely discussed. He notes
the invisibility of men in less valued professions such as the
highly hazardous and socially invaluable garbage collector job. He
notes that a glass cellar keeps an overwhelming percentage of men
in 24 of the 25 worst overall jobs. If we had the same percentage
of safety inspections per capital each year as Japan, we would save
the lives of 6,000 men and 400 women each year.
Perhaps most infuriating are the situations where, as Farrell
reveals, feminists don't lie outright but "merely" omit critical
information. They tell us only 10% of the health budget is spent
on female-specific research, but neglect to tell us only 5% is
spent on male-specific research. They say that a woman is beaten
by a man every twenty seconds, but fail to tell us a man is beaten
by a woman every eighteen seconds.
Farrell speaks carefully and is quick to crack a joke or poke
gentle fun at himself, men, or women. But he is deadly serious
about the importance of transforming the current highly polarized
gender-based identity politics into a thankfulness for men's unique
contributions and a compassion for their struggles to complement
our concern for and appreciation of women.
Why the interviewer wonders, are we so slow to learn these facts?
Because, Farrell answers, our instincts do not lead us to learn
about male vulnerability, even where it exceeds women's. Female
victims attract men, but male victims repel everyone. So we
protest disproportionate capital punishment of blacks relative to
whites but not the stunningly more disproportionate capital
punishment of men relative to women. We protest corporal
punishment of black boys but not of boys. Astoundingly, we learn
that the greatest single predictor of the level of punishment for
the same crime is the perpetrator's sex.
Farrell decires the seven legal defenses available only to women
such as the "battered women's syndrome" and bemoans the
unconstitutional special treatment of rape in criminal law. He
notes the ten glass cellars of male existence, including suicide,
prison, homelessness, the death professions, earlier death from all
fifteen leading causes of death, greater vulnerability to death
from accidents, circumcision, corporal punishment, capital
punishment, and the draft.
Surpisingly, Farrell manages to retain some optimism about the
future of relationships between men and women. For the first time
in history, he says, what it takes for men and women to survive
parallels what it takes for us to love effectively. Farrell closes
these remarkable tapes with a moving plea that we some day reach a
place where we can abandon men's rights and feminism and can all
work together on a gender transition movement to expand the
potential for all of us regardless of gender. Don't miss these
superb cassettes. And be sure your mother, partner, and/or
daughter don't miss them either. Our future may depend on it.
