Former minister for women calls for a minister for men

[SerendipityJane]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/15/katherine-fletcher-minister-women-calls-for-minister-men

From a story about Cancer Research UK this week:

The Cancer Research UK analysis suggests major advances in tackling the disease over the last four decades have prevented 1.2 million deaths.

However, progress has not been equal across all cancers, and women have not reaped as many of the benefits as men. The “enormous strain” on the NHS also threatens to derail further progress, the charity said.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/01/uk-golden-era-of-cancer-treatment-has-saved-1-million-lives-study-shows

I would be happy for there to be a minister for men. So long as the issues being addressed include male violence, absent fathers and the parenting of boys.

I like Nick Fletcher, he's a decent bloke(had a chat with him on the doorstep) and local MP. Actually on the side of womens rights and aware of needing good male role models in society.

Agree with some PPs, there’s nothing wrong with having a minister for men, to focus on issues that affect men in particular/disproportionately, including some health things, and male aggression, mental health issues and misogynistic culture and porn issues that are affecting a lot of boys and young men. Raising awareness and getting the message out to men that these things are bad for them as well as for women, would be useful. There have already been ad campaigns and public health campaigns on several of these and a minister could promote and raise the issues - and in an ideal world work closely with the women’s minister to understand the inequalities and work against them together.

I do realise it probably wouldn’t actually turn out like that and especially while we’re still enmeshed in gender ideology that tries to make actual sex and sexism meaningless. But the right person, someone intelligent and rational, could have a useful impact.

Of course women are still at a massive disadvantage and are not treated equally in a million ways, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to address male problems. If done right it should play a part in making things better for females.

Re cancer, women are generally well aware of breast cancer risks and symptoms and know about other female-only cancers, and there have been big campaigns on them as well as screening schemes, for a long time. Prostate cancer campaigns are now much more high-profile than they were, but that’s relatively recent. Another big issue is men’s reluctance to see a gp with early symptoms which means not just worse outcomes for men, but greater NHS costs dealing with more advanced illness.

“However, Isn’t the crisis for men more due to our late modernity form of capitalism? It’s all about the money (or lack of it). Widening inequalities along with offshoring of jobs, closing of manufacturing, increasing automation in the last 40 years has meant fewer jobs that were dominated by men. Plus, less funding for extracurricular spaces for boys to be active. Austerity has seen school’s playing fields sold off, community centres and youth services shut down, sports and arts are the first to be cut in schools. The price of a sporting event (premier football!) has skyrocketed.
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That boys turn to the internet and watch violent porn and are influenced by the likes of Andrew Tate is no surprise. That’s also all about the money, specifically for our tech firms whose algorithms promote misogynistic violent content to get more clicks and keep boys on the webpage for longer whatever it takes and the owners of the likes of Only Fans who’ve found a way to get filthy rich by being the platform middle men.
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I can’t see how a minister for men would convince the whole of the government/parliament to do its job and stop creating tax policies and subsidies that serve the narrow, vested interests of the financial elite and look to do a proper job of levelling up? Or convince the curriculum specialists and the minister for education that the educational reforms and relentless test culture are failing young boys?
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IF such a minister took on those challenges, great. But I’m not holding my breath. “

I agree with all of that (almost).

Tests and exams weren’t seen as “failing boys” back in the days when girls weren’t out performing them. They were seen as perfectly fine back then.

Health issues should be a particular focus, because conditions which affect men (eg prostate cancer) generally get less attention than those which affect women (eg beast cancer).

Where do you get that idea from? Prostate cancer survival has massively increased in the last 50 years, largely due to the screening programme. Prostate cancer is also much more a disease of "old age" and more likely to be slow-growing i.e. many men will die with the disease rather than from it. 10 year survival is higher for prostate cancer even though the average age of diagnosis is higher than it is for breast cancer in women. You can look up all these statistics on the Cancer Research UK website.

Heart disease affects men more than women and has received lots of research and funding over the last few decades.

Meanwhile we have poor maternity care in this country, which exclusively affects women, and we are really lacking research and treatments for common gynaecological problems. Men can get viagra and penis pumps prescribed on the NHS but it's tumbleweed for women with sexual dysfunction. Just as a few examples.

The Observer has a good article on Fletcher’s Minister for Men proposal. Explains in detail why this is an ill thought out idea.