The Pain That Today's Man Experiences

I get many letters like this. It hurts me to read them, but probably not as much as the pain they experience.

I just stumbled upon your website, and to my amazement, I found someone who is expressing the very suffocating repression I feel on a daily basis. For over a decade now, I have felt the inequality towards men the women’s organizations, media and workplace heap upon our gender. Every night on TV, one sitcom after another, portray men as bumbling, incompetent dolts who only make it through the day because their ever oh-so-superior female counterparts exercise better judgment or intellect. Though this is supposed to be a fictional comedic show, the psychological effects are truly mind boggling. Our children, exposed to this on a daily basis begin to believe that is the way things are and should be. Society is slowly being conditioned and the effects are seen daily.

You are absolutely right, women can just lambast men, without reprisal. Were a man to make even some slightly unflattering comment about the female gender, he is targeted, emasculated, drawn and quartered, without regard to the truth of his statement.

On a note of personal experience, I had to leave my job of 18 years (oh, voluntarily, of course) because of a gender war within the office. The boss, raised by a single mother, with two sisters and no brothers, a domineering wife and two harpish and haranguing daughters, allowed the women in the office to treat the men with open hostility. Statements were made like “No one with a penis should be in charge, no one with a penis should even be working in this office, oh wait, we do need someone to change the water bottle and carry our books!” Bear in mind, this is a law office in the federal government. One male co-worker made the mistake of uttering the phrase “yappy women” when talking about an experience at an airport and was given a formal reprimand and had to make a formal apology to all female employees. Yet, when the men gathered together and went to the boss to “apprise him of the gender war” his comments were “suck it up and do your job.” Now, this is taking place within offices of our federal government. What is a man to do? How can we continue?

Thanks for letting me vent my frustration.

Bill (name changed)