Psychologists recently established, for the benefit of those too blinkered to know already, that society perceives harming women as less morally acceptable than harming men.

This was in the past deeply beneficial to evolution. A society’s survival would have depended on the number of mature females able to reproduce and the degree to which their children could be nurtured, nourished and protected to maturity. Both of these processes would have required adaptations where women’s interests and wellbeing were prioritised over those of men.

Sadly, the way women have in recent times exploited this pivotal position means the benefits that accrued from this sort of behaviour are being reversed.

There are two consequences that flow from this greater concern for women. Firstly, what has been dubbed “The Empathy Gap”; a lack of empathy, and understanding when it comes to the problems facing men.

For example academic literature explains male suicide as a result of the male urge for power. When this is thwarted, suicide becomes a way of re-establishing control. It is not just Labour MP Jess Phillips who laughs at male suicide. I was recently at a lecture at LSE where the subject came up. When a member of the audience said that the higher rate of male suicide was a result of them being more effective at using weapons, the audience simply laughed.

And when men don’t go to the doctor this has nothing to do with the fact that they are prioritising the well being of others by going out to work every day. Oh no. It is because they need to appear dominant and going to the doctor would make them look weak.

As for providing – far from being a “complex, multidimensional role that manifests a father’s emotional and psychological connection to his children through meeting their needs” – this simply becomes another way in which men establish domination and control.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it is the empathy gap which underlies a mother’s exhortion that “boys don’t cry” – although my favoured view is that it is a mother’s way of dealing with the way little boys often seem to be more sensitive than little girls.

The other consequence of this lack of empathy is feminism which exploits this basic asymmetry. Will Collins explains this very well. His hypothesis is that “…the needs of the woman (mother) attains primacy in the motivation of the man, this has led to a ceding of moral authority to the woman”. Women have tragically used this moral authority to structure and shape a world to fulfil their own self-interest, enabled by a genuine lack of empathy for men.

This lack of empathy is no different from the lack of empathy for any perceived ‘outgroup’, whether Jews or “Blacks”. It results, less directly, but nevertheless very powerfully to an excess of male deaths. And we need to fight it, just as we fight other forms of discrimination – let it remain a subject of speculation as to just where our lack of concern for males will lead.

(Image: Victor)