Here are some issues currently impacting men in this 'patriarchy' we live in.

78% of Suicides

The rate of male suicide has been rising since the 90’s and is currently at an all time high.

93% of workplace deaths

70% of the homeless population

The overwhelming majority of the Prison Population and receiving longer, harsher sentences than women for the same crimes.

Equally as likely to be victims of physical, domestic abuse.

Here is a list of over 200 hundred studies demonstrating this. Although men are stronger and larger, women are far more likely to use a weapon.

However, not only do men lack the institutional support, such as shelters, media concern etc, that women receive, male victims of domestic abuse are often seen as a joke, to be ridiculed. Sometimes violence against men, at the hands of women, is even celebrated.

Experience enormous bias in family courts.

Have zero reproductive rights, but many legal obligations.

For example, if there is an unwanted pregnancy, a woman may choose to have an abortion, put the baby up for adoption, or even later give it away. Regardless of how the child was conceived, men must either pay child support until the child is 18 or go to jail, regardless of why they may be unable to pay.

Receive dramatically less funding and attention for issues related to their health than women.

Often it is claimed that women’s health issues are ignored. However, since the 1990’s more focus has been paid to issues of women’s health than that of men. Women’s health receives approximately four times more funding than men’s. This is despite the fact that, on average, men die younger. “There are seven federal health agencies specifically for women. Not one for men” “A search of more than 3,000 medical journals listed in Index Medicus found that 23 articles were written on women’s health for each one written on men’s.

Are 77% of homicide victims.

Are at a greater risk of being the victim of a violent crime, yet tend to be portrayed .primarily as perpetrators who have no reason to fear. “males are more likely to be the victims of violent crime than females are. As Sally Raskoff blogged about last year, we tend to believe that females are more vulnerable to violence. Boys and men are more likely to be victims of assault, robbery, and homicide than girls or women are”

Experience unwanted sexual contact at similar rates as women.

Yet there is no institutionalized concern yet are often portrayed primarily as perpetrators and women as victims. 19 to 31% of college men experience unwanted sexual contact, primarily from women. Among one study population, a whopping 51.2% of men reported at least one sexual victimization experience since age 16! (Half!)

Education

In the 1990’s, boys fell behind girls educationally, and the achievement gap in favor of girls has only grown since that time. Unlike Britain and Austrialia, no efforts have been made in the United States to analyze or address this.

Struggling in school and dropping out at ever increasing rates.

Women outnumber men at every level of higher education, even the Phd.

58% of college degrees are currently earned by women.

This is, in and of itself is not a problem, however men are more likely to drop out of high school and college, which is an issue which needs to be analyzed and understood.

Experience their own enormous social expectations, yet lack a healthy framework to discuss them.

Our current frame work for discussing issues of gender tells men they must shut up, listen and have their thoughts, feelings and motivations explained to them.

Are frequently portrayed negatively in the media and in general are demonized.

“Men are often seen as incompetent, misogynistic, brutish slobs with few redeeming qualities.” Men have come to be seen, first and foremost as ‘gross’ and scary, whose feelings and issues are unimportant and sometimes even mocked: ‘wut about teh menz’, ‘I bathe in male tears’, ‘sorry about your manfeelz’, etc. Men who express dislike of being demonized are dismissed as ‘whiny and brittle’.

In general, men are ridiculed and belittled. #Killallmen, Ban Men, Unfollow a man day. All the new gendered insults: Mansplaining, Manspreading, Manslamming. Endless lists, tumblrs, instagrams and websites dedicated to documenting and sometimes publicly shaming any time a man does something women dislike. Ihatemen.org , Articles written in mainstream media outlets, defending the hatred of men and ‘getting even’. Articles written to and for young women, celebrating images of women murdering men, with commenters cheering that “peak misandry has been achieved”. Supposedly done in the name of irony. (Would GQ magazine celebrating Ironic misogyny be tolerated?)

Are struggling in our new economy, particularly on the lower rungs.

The type of working class jobs in which men do well are drying up and men were hurt worse by the recession. “Eighty percent of the layoffs during the current recession have been to men, since they dominate the most heavily-hit fields like construction and manufacturing, according to government data”

Have fewer legal rights than women. Five in particular of which I’m aware.

Are generally expected to be breadwinners, despite large percentages who, if given the option, would prefer to stay home with their children. (I’m trying to find more specific data, but what I come across is often contradictory.)

Experience protests and hostility when they seek to address these issues.

When organizations meet to discuss what is mentioned here, they are met with intense hatred, protests and even death threats.

The Men’s Human Rights Movement has been dismissed as a bunch of fedora wearing, misogynist whiners who can’t get a date and support physical and sexual assault.. This could not be further from the truth. (they don’t even wear Fedoras!) In fact, many of the prominent Men’s Rights leaders actually come out of the feminist movement. This includes many gentle, loving men and strong, empowered liberal women. Women like Erin Pizzey, who opened the first shelter for abused women anywhere in the world. Warren Farrell, once a prominent feminist, 3 times elected to the NY board of women.

Sen Anne Cools, the first person of color appointed to Canadian Senate, who opened one of the first domestic violence shelters for women in Canada. In addition, numerous gay men and men of color active in the Men’s Human Rights Movement.

Colleges are disbanding Men’s Rights student groups and their conferences are shut down.

Protesters, sometimes backed by trade unions, screaming in the faces of those trying to attend. During some conferences, protestors pull fire alarms and play favellas, refusing to allow anyone the chance to speak. If the media addresses this at all, it is more likely than not to be portrayed as a victory for women. The Men’s movement has largely been portrayed by the media as driven by hatred towards women and like the gender equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan. When efforts have been made to open shelters for abused men, the (mostly) women attempting to do so are met with protests, hatred and death threats from the feminist movement. The woman’s lobby actively fights againstefforts to make family courts more fair to men.