Mens issues and Awareness in Canadian society: A Case Study of Canadian Association For Equality

Omolabake Ogundele Final Essay Media, Publics, and Democracy

PRE-AMBLE Over the past three decades, feminist scholars have focused on gender inequality and its impact on women. More recently, mens groups in Canada and America have argued that the public and the media need to pay attention to mens issues; disengaging from stereotypes which negatively categorize men. These mens groups advocate for their own version of gender equality and social justice, suggesting that men are disadvantaged by social and economic structures, in areas such as divorce and shared custody of the child. While Canadian Association for Equality, CAFE, as they call themselves, believe that mens issues are being sidelined. This paper on the other hand, will argue that they fail to acknowledge the ideology of patriarchy that conditions both social and gender relations.

INTRODUCTION: The Structure of the Paper It is the aim of this paper to examine the issues of gender inequality and its impact on women in society. In dealing with these issues, the perspectives used by the Canadian Association for Equality and those presented by scholarly contributions will be examined and analyzed. It is incontrovertible that gender inequality, empowerment, and participation have increased a global concern because of the attendant prejudice, discrimination, and victimization that gender has generated in recent times. Scholarly contributions have polarized discussants into groups holding divergent views, with one group arguing that women are mostly at the receiving ends of gender prejudice and discrimination, while some others have argued that evidences are available to show that both women and men are victims of such circumstances.

Gender is the social relation I am analyzing and how in the process of defining mens roles, the CAFE defines womens roles as well, especially in areas such as employment, politics and domestic labour. CAFEs main aim is to advocate for gender equality and empowerment for men, especially fathers, who believe that divorce laws are more favourable to women than men. A gender lens applied to global issues raises concerns about inequality and invincibility, about empowerment and participation (Sreberny, 2005, p.285). This is the approach CAFE claims to be using in relation to the issues they are bringing attention to. The CAFE is a Canadian mens rights group that is advocating for mens rights and for changes to social structures that do harm to the concept of masculinity in our society. According to the groups mandate, they say we feel the public must be made aware of the existence and specifics of mens issues and the fact that these issues are isolated, but rather interconnected and part of a large societal pattern of discrimination, ignorance and harmful public policy (Canadian Association, 2008). CAFE contends that being masculine is not down to the traditional physical attributes associated with men, but that men can be nurturers and be good parents too. Also, CAFE argues that not only women, but men have been hurt by sexism and outlines its effects on masculinity in a number of issues such as: family law/ fathers rights, violence against men and mens health. Emphasis by the group is placed on how only news of violence against women make it to the media, and rarely do violence against men by women come up. The issue of spousal violence against men was chosen because it is not predominant in the news media and it has become an important issue to men activists in Canada and America.

Gender Gender is a socially constructed definition of women and men. According to Gauntlett (2001), it is the social design of a biological sex, determined by the conception of tasks, functions and roles attributed to women and men in society, public and private life (p.5). The construction and reproduction of gender takes place at the individual level as well as at the societal level, which are equally both important levels. Individuals play specific parts in shaping gender roles through their activities and reproducing them by conforming to expectations. Gauntlett (2001) further asserts, there is a growing awareness that gender has to be considered at the political and institutional level (p.7). Policies and institutional structures play an important role in shaping the conditions that guide everyday life, and in so doing they often institutionalize the maintenance and reproduction of the social construction of gender. Gauntlett is therefore of the view that a history of discrimination and restraining role is unconsciously written into everyday routine and policies. Gender is not only a socially constructed definition of women and men; it is a socially constructed definition between sexes. This social construction contains an unequal power relationship with male domination and female subordination in most spheres of life, such as in the public and private spheres. Mens roles, functions, and values associated with them are valued, in many aspects, higher than womens and what is associated with them. According to Gauntlett (2001), it is increasingly recognized that society is characterized by this male bias: the male norm is taken as the norm for society

as a whole, which is reflected in policies and structures (p. 53). However, mens activists claim that there is no such thing as this male bias rather society is feminized with men as victims. They believe there is an imbalance between men and women in society, with women benefitting more and having more power than men.

Moscos processes of structuration Mosco (1996) defines structuration as the process by which structures are constituted out of human agency, even as they provide the very medium of that constitution (p. 213). By this, he means to integrate the study of social institutions and social processes. Mosco suggests that race, social movements, gender, and class be seen as categories of media influence, which can be used to describe the social relations of communication practices. Mosco (1996) further argues that structuration calls on us to broaden the conception of social class from its structural or categorical sense, which defines class in terms of what some have and others do not, to incorporate both a relational and a formational sense of the term (p. 216.). In order to enhance the categorical view of social class, a relational view of class is applied that defines it according to those practices and processes that link social categories, for example, the relationship between business and labour (Mosco, 1996, p. 214). Also, class is a formation in which, for historical reasons, consciousness of this situation and the organization to deal with it have developed (Mosco, 1996, p. 217). By this Mosco means, that class exists to the degree it does because people are aware and willing to act based on their class position.

There is evidence stating that social institutions assign different roles and opportunities based on gender. Men and women are assigned roles in society; mans role is to be a provider and breadwinner of the family, while for women, their role is to be a nurturer and care for the family especially the children. These roles determine how both sexes progress in society especially within the workplace. For example, men are given a fairer advantage and paid more than women. Also, there are connections between class relations and gender relation in society. Some social institutions and processes treat women as second-class citizens. Even though women are divided by class, skin colour or beliefs, they all experience oppression because they are women.

Mens issues in society In his article The Limits of The Male Sex Role: An Analysis of the Men's Liberation and Men's Rights Movements' Discourse, Michael Messner (2008), attempted to come to terms with a contradictory reality: Men hold institutional power in patriarchical societies, but men do not feel very powerful (p. 256). Men face gender inequality in society and men actually have it worse than women. The reason he gives for the previous statement is because the male role is far more fixed than the female role, and women have created a movement through which they can now rise above cultural limits: unlike the issues women face, mens problems may be difficult to change through legislation. Thus, scholars like Messner, see feminism as a plot by women to cover up the reality, that it is actually women who have the power and men who are most oppressed in society. CAFE shares this view by emphasizing that divorce, health problems and mens lower life span are evidence of mens oppression. From this point of view, CAFE sees

womens liberalization as a movement that is contributing to the oppression men are feeling today. In supporting their stance, CAFE claims that they are true victims of sexist media conventions, false rape accusations, domestic violence, and divorce settlements. CAFEs discourse tends to depend on anecdotal stories, combined with a few highly questionable studies, which has formed a foundation for the development of an ideology of male victimization. The issue of spousal violence is an example.

Spousal Violence against men According to Messner (2008), mens rights have argued that feminist ideology and mens shame have combined to cover up massive numbers of men in families who are physically abused by women and murdered by women (p. 260). CAFE in supporting this assertion, has argued every study that has used sampling techniques to look at the issue of spouse abuse has concluded that men are at least 50 percent (or higher) of the battered spouses in Canada. However, contrary to CAFEs stand point, a recent survey from statistics Canada informs that: A similar proportion of men and women reported experiencing spousal violence during the five years prior to the survey. Among men, 585,000 6.0%, encountered spousal violence during this period, compared with 6.4% or 601,000 women. About 57% of women who had experienced an incident of spousal violence in the five years prior to the survey reported that it had occurred on more than one occasion, as did 40% of men (2009). From this study, it is revealed that the proportion of women who reported spousal violence in Canada is higher than men. The idea that men are the victims is contrary to the point. Also, a U.S. National Crime Survey data showed that only between three percent and four percent of spousal violence involved attack on men by their female partners, and ninety-two percent of those who seek medical care from a private physician

for injuries received in a spousal assault are women (Bureau, 1993-2001). The violence that occurs after spousal separation and divorce are not yet reported in many of these studies, these account for seventy-six percent of spouse-on-spouse assaults, with a male perpetrator ninety-three percent of the time (Chaudhuri, 2012, p. 59). This is an especially noteworthy fact in the context of this discussion, since CAFE advocates that men have the highest rate of being the victims of spousal violence.

Fathers rights Although CAFE has a broad agenda of change, the issue of fathers rights has been their most successful rallying point. According to a research done by Chaudhuri, she explains why some divorced fathers are attracted to mens rights organization. Many divorced fathers, who claim that courts have discriminated against them in child custody rulings because they are men, have found mens rights organizations to be powerful vehicles through which to focus their anger and sense of injustice (Chaudhuri, 2012, p. 261). CAFEs head of public relations, Martin Troitter, sums up the basis for this anger: Divorce courts are frequently like slaughter-houses, with about as much compassion and talent. They function as collection agencies for lawyer fees, however outrageous; stealing children and extorting money from men in ways blatantly unconstitutionalMen are regarded as mere guests in their own homes, evictable any time at the whims of wives and judges. Men are driven from home and children against their wills: then when unable to stretch paychecks far enough to support two households are termed runaway fathers. Contrary to all principles of justice, men are thrown into prison for inability to pay alimony and support, however unreasonable or unfair the Obligation (personal communication, February 16, 2012).

CAFE has as its aim to alter laws related to divorce and child custody. However, what CAFE has failed to acknowledge is that of how work and family institutional relations

benefit men, especially those who are middle or working class before and after divorces. For example, custody is shaped by the divisions of labour and in the vast majority of cases; mothers end up with responsibility for children by private arrangement with the father (Rossi, 2004, p. 272). Instead, CAFE focuses on the economic and emotional costs such as, the common legal assumption after a divorce that children are better off spending time with their mothers. In her research, Chaudhuri (2012) asserts the rhetoric of mens rights gives the illusion of equality, but in essence, the demands are to continue the practice of inequality in post-divorce but now with a legal sanction (p. 63). Thus, CAFE claims to be pushing for equality and empowerment for men, rather they are trying to enforce the power of men over women; in areas where they claim women have the power. Another point CAFE raises in the context of divorce and fathers rights, is the effect on boys with the absence of the father, noting the absence of male sex- role model in single- parent families. In the absence of a male sex-role model, it was assumed that boys could not acquire strong masculine identities or sex roles and would not have models of achievement with which to identify. According to Chaudhuri (2012), the validity of this interpretation, is weakened by the fact that many boys without fathers seem to develop quite normally so far where sex role development and achievement are concerned (p. 63). Contrasting Chaudhuris research, another research done by Hetheringthon, Biller and Bahn (1981), strongly suggests that children who become father-absent before the age of five suffer more debilitating intrapsychological and interpersonal difficulties (as cited in Beaty, 2005, p.1). However, the same can be argued for the absence of a female-role model from a childs life. An argument has to be made

considering both sides, as both parents are needed in a child life to aid development and the understanding a child has of his/her sexuality. Also, CAFE claims social and economic institutions do not support fathers who, upon divorce or separation, seek to actively parent. Unlike women who receive benefits from the government, no benefits are given to men who want to still carry on in parenting. These disincentives they say, block many fathers from continued involvement with their children after divorce, even those who were involved with their children while married. If feminists movements did not fight for womens rights, the benefits that women receive would not have been available, especially in a heavily guarded patriarchical society. Even some feminists such as Betty Freidan will argue that with the benefits women receive, they still face social hardship in society. For example, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) in a report published in 2008 states women working full time in 2005 received about 70 percent as much as comparable to men, $39, 200 versus $55, 700 respectively (Nosko and Light, 2008). Even though CAFE claims that women are the ones with the power, the statistic from the CLC proves otherwise. For some women, the benefits they receive from the government are what provide their daily needs and covers the day-to-day costs.

Crisis in Masculinity CAFE claims that they are aware of the ways, in which masculinity has hurt, limited and caged men, and they want to rebuild a masculinity that is more nurturing and peaceful. More importantly, they do not see feminism as the way to accomplish this improvement in the lives of men. Also, they disagree with the feminists argument that

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men enjoy institutionalized privileges. On their website they state how women are culturally favoured by divorce laws which presume the naturally superior capabilities of women to care for children and which stereotype men as wallets (Canadian Association, 2008). CAFE claims that the feminists movement succeeded in getting society to terminate the stereotypes that hurt women and that just like the feminists movement they are striving to eliminate stereotypes that are hurting and limiting men. According to Palmer-Melita (2009), for these men, they are trying to reverse the destructive effects of feminism (p. 1062). This destructive effect of feminism on mens role according to CAFE, has led to what Hester has termed as a crisis in masculinity. Hester (2010) further explains that the crisis of masculinity is based on the notion that men are confused about the roles and identities to which they should aspire at a time when social and cultural definitions of manhood are ambiguous and in transition (p. 127). Some mens rights group like the National Coalition of Free Men located in the U.S. claim that as a result of the feminist movements, mens role has become distorted. The National Coalition of Free Men state that men have become confused and are scared of their apparent loss of traditional power in an increasingly feminized culture and society (as cited in Hester, 2010, p. 127). As a result, some men believe that being more involved with masculine pursuits such as bodybuilding will counter the impact the feminized culture has on them.

Domestic violence against men in mainstream media According to Martin Troitter, family abuse is not just a womens issue, it is a social issue affecting men, thus drawing attention to spousal violence, he claims that the

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media is biased in only portraying violence carried out on women and not men (personal communication, February 16, 2012). He asserts further that the lack of the prevalence of husband abuse in traditional media (television and newspaper) is because of the feminization of domestic violence. Even though men can be victims of spousal violence, based on the statistics compiled by Statistic Canada on page 5, women have a higher victim record than men, thus their prevalence in mainstream media. For the analysis of spousal violence in the mainstream media, two different sources will be analyzed, including The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. The archives of each news company will be searched with the keywords: spousal violence, violence against men and men as victims of spousal violence; all keyword results will be reviewed and samples of the articles that form part of the list (if any) will be critically analyzed. In the search for articles on spousal violence against men, The Toronto Star yielded no results for all keywords searched and this is surprising for a newspaper that endorses the Liberal Party of Canada, especially when the Liberal Party stresses for equality between men and women. The Globe and mail came up with no result within the time frame I was searching for articles but some articles relating to spousal violence came up prior to 2011. The Globe and Mail on the other hand endorses the Conservative party of Canada. It is important to note that the conservative party has been accused by men groups and activists in Canada that they give a lot of benefits to women resulting in women faring better than men. Even though CAFE claims that the mainstream media ignores mens issues, research finding has indicated mens issues are not completely ignored in the mainstream media.

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Some scholars do not see the media at fault in not reporting the spousal violence against men, as it is not all men that are victims of spousal violence that make report of their experience. According to Croteau et al (1991), men are less likely to report assault when the offender is a female (p. 211). Several factors impede men from reporting an abuse. These include avoiding treatment options since men are likely to see themselves as victims, minimization of the offence and shame associated with the failure to protect himself from injury, effort at making up for victimization by protecting a strong culturally entrenched masculine identity, the tendency to evade male bonding with others, equating failure to protect oneself with passivity of character and low self-esteem (Croteau et al, 1991, p. 213). It is also important to take into account the forces within mainstream media that act on which type of news become newsworthy. For example, the agenda setting in news media is the way the news media come to determine which news is considered to be newsworthy based on what the public thinks and talks about. There are three important elements that are considered in an agenda setting that Croteau et al (1991) discusses: valence (favorable or unfavourable coverage given to an issue), visibility (the amount of prominence of coverage give in an issue) and audience silence (the relevance of the news audience needs) (p. 220). Agenda setting of the news media has an important bearing on which aspect of spousal violence that gets more prominence. If male victimization is not a topic that is being spoken about or reported in alarming rates to the authorities it might not be considered newsworthy.

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The Internet as an alternative However, CAFE sees the lack of prevalence as being linked to the feminization of domestic violence. Thus, in order to reverse the feminization of domestic violence in mainstream media, CAFE has resorted to using and relying on the Internet. CAFE claims that the Internet will be a useful tool in spreading the word about mens rights and alerting the rest of society about the issues men face, since the media has failed to do so. Rather than focus on reforming the mainstream media, these activists seek an alternative media structure. In contrast, these activists expect that by providing alternative structures for media distribution with significant citizen access to media production, perceived shortcomings of dominant media will be corrected. Conclusion Researches conducted and widely reported in this Paper have indicated that there is a general agreement and acceptance of the existence of gender prejudices, abuse, and discrimination. However, the only area of disagreement is in the determination of who the victim is, whether men or women. The Paper has also succeeded in raising the point that gender issues are already in the public domain with different individuals and groups holding fast to their opinions and standpoints. The major arguments and position have therefore being rested on whether society is being unindicted and governed by policies that are male bias or female prejudices and oppression. The roles and contributions put forward by CAFE on gender in-equality cannot be over emphasized. By and large, CAFEs discourse may be seen as depending on anecdotal

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stories, combined with a few highly questionable studies, which may have formed a foundation for the development of an ideology. Yet, those who may not readily agree with the mens rights groups advocacy will undoubtedly admit that the group has stirred the hornets nest and succeeded in generating public awareness of the existence of gender issues which can no more be treated as isolated but rather as interconnected parts of a large societal pattern of discrimination. Policies and institutional structures play an important role in shaping the conditions that guide everyday life, and in so doing, they often institutionalize the maintenance and reproduction of the social construction of gender. By carrying out more research and studies on some of the points they give, CAFE would be able to back their arguments properly. Through the research of spousal violence against men, I was able to find out that womens experiences with abuse resonate patriarchical subjugation. Engaging men in advocacy focusing on gender, needs to start with a shift in mentality from blame to inclusion. For example, rather than blaming feminists and the feminists movements, they should draw attention to mens roles as facilitators of constructive mens engagement for men. CAFE should work on policy positions and actions with womens group to achieve gender equality goals and show the public that women support and welcome these endeavors. With that being said, the limitation of the research was the inaccessibility to the articles on The Globe and Mail website, that required a fee be paid to access their database.

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References Beaty, L. A. (2012, April). Effects of paternal absence on male adolescents peer relations and self-image. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_n120_v30/ai_17856540/ Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2010). Violent Crime. Intimate Partner Violence, 19932001. Retrieved from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics: http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1001 Chaudhuri, T. (2012). Patterns of male victimization in intimate relationships: A pilot comparison of academic and media reports. The Journal of Mens Studies, 20(1), 57-72 Croteau, D., & Hoynes, W. (1991). Men, masculinity and the media. London: Sage Publications. Gauntlett, D. (2001). Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction. London: Routledge. Hester, D. C. (2010). Beyond Dudecore? Challenging Gendered and Raced Technologies Through Media Activism. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 54(1), 121-135 Messner, M. (1998). The Limits of The Male Sex Role: An Analysis of the Mens Liberation and Mens Rigths Movements Discourse. Gender & Society, 12(3), 255-276 Nosko, E., & Light, A. (2011, April). Workplace Gender Equality in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.canadaandtheworld.com/genderequalityincanada.html Palmer-Melita(2009). Men Behaving Badly: Mediocre Masculinity and The Man Show, Journal of Popular Culture, 4(6) 1053-1072

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Rossi, S.E. (2004). The Battle and Backlash Rage On: Why Feminism Cannot Be Obsolete. Bloomington, IN: Xilbris Corporation Sreberny, A. (2005). Gender, Empowerment, and Communication: Looking Backwards and Forwards. International Social ScienceJjournal, 57(2), 285-300 Statistics Canada. (2009).The Daily. Family Violence in Canada: A statistical profile. Retrieved from Statistics Canada: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dailyquotidien/110127/dq110127a-eng.htm Trottier, J. (2008). Canadian Association for Equality: Mens issues Awareness. Retrived from http://equalitycanada.com/

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