National Organization for Men May 24, 2008 Jill Click the pic for a bigger version. via. Thanks to Kelsey for the link.
The sex breakdown of US federal non-postal employees is 55-45% male-to-female. Not much of an organization.
What if we just count the Legislature, Cabinet, and Federal Judges? You know, the positions that actually matter from a public policy perspective?
Yay, I love Toothpaste for Dinner! Tom, the point isn’t that the government is made up entirely of men (though, I think it’s fair to say that the higher levels and positions of power are still dominated by men). The idea is that our laws, our government, and our society as a whole, have historically been controlled by men and based in a male perspective. As a result, despite the successes of feminism, our government is still designed to prioritize the needs and points of view of men (that is, white, heterosexual, middle to upper class men).
Tom: Focusing on the demographics (descriptive representation) is myopic at best. What’s important is the substantive representation; male interests are fully represented in the government, whereas female interests are not.
Indeed, women are vastly under represented in our government. I saw a statistic the other day, indicating the the US ranks virtually dead last among developed countries with respect to the representation of women. I think Sweden was at the top, with something like 47% of their legislative seats held by females. My state, california has a majority of its congressional districts represented by women. My three representatives in congress (two senators, one House rep) are all women. But, that’s unusual. I really don’t think the government, in and of itself, is the major hub of power and sexism. Its a symptom. I think corporate america and our monied financial and wealth institutions wield all the real power in this country. They basically own the government. And corporate america, and its institutionalized patriarchical context and history, has even more of a glass ceiling for women, than does the government. How many women CEO’s are there. How many women are even in the upper management of Defense contractors or Oil companies?
anonymous, Really? All male interests are fully represented by the gov’t? I’m sure men getting a legal beatdown in family court, minority men suffering in jail and dozen of other example wouldn’t agree with you. Yes the system is fucked and the patriarchy retains 90% of its power but its not all roses all the time. Peter has it right that its the corporations that run a lot of this country and its their fucked up way of reasoning that causes a lot of problems. As far as female ceo/upper management representation, it only makes sense to me that a disturbingly low number of those positions are filled by women. How long does it typically take to rise up to the the top of a fortune 500 company or become a justice at the appellate or supreme court? 20 years minimum? More like 30 or 40 even? Well look back 20-40 years, how many women were on the track to obtain these jobs? Too damn few, as a society we are taking steps to change that, but it doesnt change the fact that we fucked up for way too long. But looking at it how exactly would women fill 55% of fortune 500 ceo positions if 20-40 years ago women only represented what, 5-10%?, of people on the track for those positions? Thankfully we’re seeing that change and if you look at the mid-tier you will see a lot of companies with majority female representation. We just need to keep making steps in the right direction and we will get there. Look no further than state legislatures, women have made enormous strides there as the barrier to entry is lower than the top person at a huge company and gains will continue to be made. I’m originally from Maine, which is a state of two minds, the south being very progressive and the north being very bassackwards. 35% of the state legislature is female but more than 50% of the reps from the south are, two female senators and so on. This in a state with as poor a representation of females as any other in the 60’s and 70’s. A National Organization for Men is not a bad idea, or even one for mens health. I’ll go find the articles but the % of money spent on specifically male health research is lower than that spent on specifically female health research (both are small shares of overall spending). People forget or hold on to the numbers they remember from the late 80’s as far as spending on specific gender research. The system we currently have negatively effects all of us, yes women more than men, but damn it I really dont see why there couldnt be an advocacy group for men that isnt bogged down with the patriarchal bullshit most every other gov’t organization has.
Counting down to the first humorless comment about how feminists shouldn’t poo-poo the valuable work that men’s organizations—even pro-feminist ones!—do.
Toothpaste for Dinner has a pretty liberal policy on using comics in blogs, MySpace, etc., but that policy (and common sense/courtesy) says that you ought to at least link back to his website. He even has html code that you can copy/paste that includes the link.
Evan- I’m confused. I did link to the site in the post, so I’m unclear as to what you’re asking me to do. Please feel free to clarify if I somehow haven’t linked according to the standards of the creator of the comic.
All male interests are fully represented by the gov’t? jamespi, of course they are. Don’t play dumb! That “National Organization of Men” always place male interests first! Otherwise, how else could you explain why women take the overwhelming majority of casualties in Iraq, and why women suffer the overwhelming majority of workplace fatalities here at home, and why women’s genitals are routinely mutilated shortly after birth in the U.S., while men’s are almost always left intact? Oh wait…
lets not forget that the patriarchy negatively affects all people. not to the same degree but even us lowly white males get the shaft. The broken family court and the strange anti-father road blocks involved in it are proof of that. Also, despite what some blogs might think there still is a divide between boys and girls in the school system. I do not claim that the “Average” male and “average” female share an equal burden, nor do i claim to even know what the “average person” truly is.
Obviously, one of the dudes in the picture doesn’t know that there is an organization actually named the National Organization for Men. *giggles*
From : “You may display TFD/MTTS/ND comics on your website, blog, Myspace, Livejournal, etc. as long as you link back to toothpastefordinner.com / marriedtothesea.com / nataliedee.com.” That is, link to the front page, not the image itself.
I’m going to make a deal with women, I think. For my part, I’m going to encourage women to voice their opinions politically, socially, and culturally. Run for office, I say–I’ll volunteer. Write a letter to your representative or Senator, I’ll say–I’ll copy edit. In exchange, I’m hoping for more men to become a part of feminism–Don’t start by blaming men for not wanting to get involved, that gets us nowhere. I want more men to become a part of feminism, and I want feminists to be able to sit down and discuss the philosophies and politics around their viewpoint openly. It’s exceedingly difficult for men to voice their views on it without sounding crass, insulting, or oblivious, and we’re not. We’re really not.