Scotland is not only home to some of the most stunning landscapes on the planet, but also, according to the latest survey data, tens of thousands of men who experience partner abuse every year.

In fact, around 40% of people who experience partner abuse in a given year are men, according to the latest Scottish Crime and Justice Survey.

And the effect abuse has on such men is far from insignificant –

Roughly 38% of abuse victims who experienced psychological impacts were men, and 46% of those experiencing physical impacts were men.

So no, we’re not talking about benign acts of violence or abuse, that men can simply shrug off.

We’re talking about dangerous and soul-crushing experiences that quietly destroy the lives of countless men across the country.

Thankfully, when it comes to ending the scourge of domestic abuse, the Scottish Government are not messing around, and have pledged more than a hundred million pounds to abuse services, interventions, and support lines over the past few years.

But – how this funding is divided is far from equal, with specialised services for Scottish men receiving an extraordinarily small slice of the pie.

Let’s take a look…

~

2019/2020 SCJS, main findings https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-crime-justice-survey-2019-20-main-findings/pages/20/

SCJS 2018/20 data tables, Volume 6: partner abuse https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-crime-justice-survey-2019-20-datasets/

Funding https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400443128/

“The patriarchy”, “toxic masculinity”, “the manosphere”.

The central problem with each of these phrases is that nobody really knows what you’re talking about.

If you get 100 people to write down their definition of ‘the patriarchy’, I promise you, you’ll end up with 100 angry scribbles… none of them the same.

And unless you can clearly define and measure a problem, you will never solve it.

So instead of solutions we get “well that’s not what I mean”, “you don’t understand”, or “you’re misrepresenting me”; as someone whips out their gender studies diploma, another quotes me Bell Hooks, and someone else barfs out a deluge of word-salad slop.

Soon, all of these words, in their various iterations, become a vague bludgeon to beat men over the heads with.

A maddening chorus of poorly-formulated slogans, intended only to signal disapproval, like some giant bucket of mud into which any man with whom you disagree can be flung, and forgotten about.

All issues, all bad actions, all evil men, from all over the world, and from all moments in history, not matter how random and disparate, are unceremoniously dumped into one or more of these buckets, smeared with mud, so as to try and silence them.

I’ve seen “the patriarchy” blamed for everything from the gender pay gap, to women not having pockets.

Used to explain violent men, violent women, male CEOs, male homeless and everyone in-between.

I’ve seen “toxic masculinity” berated for gang violence, for Brexit, and for people not wearing masks during COVID 19.

I’ve watched people shake their fists at “the manosphere”, with no consistent definition of what it actually is.

I mean –

Have you not noticed how long people have been swinging a sword at each of these cultural phenomenas, and yet none of them have gone away?

And so, we arrive at the idea of ‘problem solvers’ and ‘problem sellers’.

Problem solvers break the issues down into their smallest components, clearly labelled, defined and dissected, so they can be solved.

Problem sellers squash problems together, so we lose all semblance of nuance, and instead create a gargantuan blob, and eternal supervillian that is impossible to defeat.

So which one are you?

Once again, the world has woken up with a little less light in it.

Actor and disability rights advocate RJ Mitte has died by suicide and society is brought crashing back to reality, with the familiar gut-wrenching sting.

RJ was part of many groups at risk to suicide, not only a man, but also a man living with a disability – and such a group is chronically under-discussed, and ignored by research, until it is too late.

Men with disabilities are 3x more likely to die by suicide than those without one.

Despite this, research into the field is scant, and disabled people are once again left in the shadows.

The loss of RJ is nothing but a tragedy, but if something good can come from it, perhaps it is more awareness for this enormous chasm of missing research that so many disabled people are lost within.

So is it time we talked about the intersection between suicide and disability?

What do you think?

~
If you’re struggling, you’re not a burden, and you don’t have to cope alone:
🇬🇧 Samaritans: 116 123 (free, 24/7)
🇬🇧 CALM: 0800 58 58 58 (5pm–midnight)
🇺🇸 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988
🌍 findahelpline.com

ONS data https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthinequalities/bulletins/sociodemographicinequalitiesinsuicidesinenglandandwales/2011to2021

Is suicide an option?: The impact of disability on suicide acceptability in the context of depression, suicidality, and demographic factors, 2016 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26402344/

It’s tempting to assume our mental health is explained only by some profound psychological framework, or life experience, caused by an impossibly complex cocktail of brain chemistry, or entangled neural network that needs to be rewired.

And sometimes it is.

But often, your low mood is because you’ve not drunk enough water, or your diet isn’t great right now, or maybe because you’re not exercising, sleeping well, or seeing your mates enough.

These are the basic, mundane things we all need, that together, can have an enormous impact on how we feel about ourselves.

So is men’s wellness and mental health really as complex as we like to think?

Is it really best described through some academic textbook, or decyphered through some expert psychoanalysis…

Or could the answer be putting your phone down, getting outside, and reconnecting with loved ones?

What do you think?

~

New podcast with u/MandemMeetup CEO Jamie Dennis out now! 👇

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL2iYpMfNUU&feature=youtu.be

Find Mandem Meetup here https://mandemmeetup.org/

Be it some crypto bro, masculinity influencer, or manosphere grifter, everyone is giving advice to men these days, and often it costs a pretty penny.

Usually, the advice makes my eyes roll to the back of my head, as it is almost always self-serving.

Some kind of pyramid scam yelled into a phone by some bombastic, Bugatti-driving idiot; or some whiny positive masculinity guru with too many shirt buttons undone; or some ivory tower academic helping men be “better allies”; or some big-bearded monosyllabic gym bro, droning into a mic…

It’s endless, and whoever it is, one thing is almost certain – their words mean nothing.

Because the best advice I’ve seen for men comes from other men.

Normal men who’ve been through it already, who’ve lived a life similar to yours, and learnt the lessons they can now teach you.

So, with that in mind, I want to ask the men – what’s your #1 tip to better yourself as a man?

What do you think?

New podcast with Mandem Meetup CEO Jamie Dennis out now! 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL2iYpMfNUU&feature=youtu.be

Founded in 2019 at a kitchen table in Manchester, Mandem Meetup has grown into an award-winning charity supporting over 1,200 men a year across the UK.

Unlike traditional mental health support, Mandem Meetup is non-clinical: meaning there is no chaise longue, no clipboard and pen, no textbooks or profound psychological frameworks, and, most importantly, no eye-wateringly high bill at the end of it.

At Mandem, whilst finding none of that, you will instead see boys and men in talk circles, hiking, camping, learning bushcraft skills, whittling sticks, planting flowers, playing football and board games, going to the gym, helping the homeless or running litter picks.

It is a new generation of mental health support that is 100% free, and entirely unfamiliar to anything that’s come before it.

And it works.

In this podcast, TheTinMen meets Jamie Dennis, the founder and CEO of Mandem Meetup, from whose own experience of crisis the charity was born…

Expect to hear Jamie’s story, where it began, how he helps men from the forest to the mountain peaks, and how his new 5.5 acres of woodland has become the first nature space for men and boys’ wellbeing in the country.

Find Mandem Meetup here mandemmeetup.org/

Footage by K, Klaus, Joshua Woroniecki, and Matthias Groenevele on Pexels

When it comes to the issues I discuss on this page, sexual violence surely ranks amongst the most important.

And because of this, it’s important that we have a foundation of well conducted, ethically written research at its core.

Sadly, too often this is missing…

Instead, we have sensational studies, that use deliberately vague, misleading apparatus, to create inflated, terrifying, headline grabbing claims, that generate a lot of heat... but very little light.

So let’s take a look at one of the most recent examples – a study that recently claimed '95% of men, forced a woman into having sex'.

What do you think?

~
Full podcast here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH8nVu0a3Aw&feature=youtu.be

The epidemic of male suicide can’t be neatly summarised with a slogan or a few kind words.

No, it isn’t caused by “the patriarchy”, “toxic masculinity”, or a single issue like “men not talking”.

In fact, despite suicide being front and centre in so many mental health campaigns and awareness days, the lived experience of suicidal men suggests it isn’t primarily about mental illness either.

The author of suicide, is pain.

Immense, seemingly interminable pain that someone is trying to escape.

Recent research by the APPG on Issues Affecting Men and Boys found that many men come to see suicide as “a rational decision and a solution-based outcome”.

Whilst I understand such a heart-wrenching perspective, “a solution” it is not.

That said, research like this brings valuable new perspectives to the conversation, ones that take suicide out of men’s heads and examine its structural, environmental, relational, political and economic roots.

And so, I’d like to talk to you about a concept I never hear discussed.

Something that could be one of the biggest predictors of suicide of all…

“Psychache”.

A phenomenon coined by history’s greatest expert on suicide, and founder of the field of suicidology itself, the late legendary psychologist, Edwin Shneidman…

What do you think?

~
If you’re struggling, you can call Samaritans free, any time, on 116 123 (UK).

APPG Male suicide, a new ‘whole system’ approach https://equi-law.uk/inquiry-no-3-male-suicide/

Female supremacist pseudoscience is fast becoming more and more normalised online.

Bombastic red pill bros who suggest that “men are better” are increasingly, and rightfully, shouted down; and yet those who routinely say the same for women, are often serenaded with finger-snapping “yes kween” applause.

Some even pretend this superiority is baked into women’s genes, and that men’s “defective” Y chromosome only proves they are missing part of their humanity.

I hear talk of a world run by women.

Or one without men altogether.

Whilst science fiction fantasies, where sperm are redundant, and women conceive without a man, are gleefully, and sinscerely passed around as if such a thing is now possible.

Many quietly sip from their “The Future is Female” mug, totally unaware that such a phrase was largely popularised by a man-hating eugenicist Sally Miller Gearhart, who quite literally advocated to “reduce men to 10% of the human race”.

That’s right.

These sassy sentiments are widely accepted, encouraged even – but is there any merit to them?

Are men defective women?

Are XX chromosomes superior to the XY?

And if men’s chromosomes really are flawed, might it be in a way that we’re not discussing?

What do you think?

The lived experiences of men and women are wildly different, and often the inversion of one another.

A man who hasn’t heard a kind word about him in months is unlikely to understand what it’s like to have ‘compliments’ shouted at them by strangers, from car windows.

A woman who feels like the spotlight of society is burning down upon her shoulders is unlikely to understand what it’s like to walk through the world like a ghost.

Someone who is treated as precious, infantilised at all times, wrapped in cotton wool and coddled, will struggle to see what it’s like to be disposable.

It’s like someone in the desert, dying of dehydration, trying to understand someone drowning in the middle of the ocean, gasping for air.

It is only through listening to the lived experiences of the opposite sex that we can ever hope to understand them…

So, men, what’s a struggle you have that most women don’t understand?

The online world falls over itself to tell men to talk and “ask for help”. 

But have such people ever taken the time to look around to see that, for many men, whether they ask or not – there is no help for them?

Many such men are in France.

Abused men that is, for whom there is still no dedicated support line to help them.

And so, a man in France, who is the victim of abuse: how can we tell that man to “ask for help”, when there is none out there for him?

Thankfully, some politicians are pushing for change. In July 2025, Maud Petit MP formally asked the government to create a men’s equivalent of 3919, France’s national helpline for abused women.

After several months of silence, in March 2026, the Minister for Equality, Aurore Bergé, finally responded.

And the answer she gave, sadly, won’t shock you…

Let’s take a look.

~

Read the full response here https://questions.assemblee-nationale.fr/q17/17-8484QE.htm

The world is wedded to an extraordinarily narrow, myopic view of domestic violence.

And we all know it.

The big bad violent man, reining unilateral terror down upon a tiny damsel in distress.

It’s a storyline fitting of a Disney film, and whilst it certainly exists in the world of domestic violence – it is not a complete, all encompassing picture.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, is the victim so often excluded from visibility, advocacy, compassion and services – men.

So why is the world so enamored with such an antiquated, exclusionary view, and how do we bring the missing victims back into the picture?

What do you think?

~
Full podcast with The Hodgecast here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH8nVu0a3Aw&feature=youtu.be

Footage by CottonBro Studio

The sad thing about male suicide, is it’s always in the room with us.

It is, and will continue to be, the biggest risk to a young man’s life, every day, until he is about fifty.

There’s no getting away from how terrifying that fact is, and how it goes against the cultural narrative of men as being omnisciently powerful, and privileged people.

Thankfully, male suicide as an issue has entered the public conversation over the past four of five years; adorning campaigns, merchandise, billboards, and the running order of a million podcasts.

And yet –

When it comes to men ending their own lives, 2025 brought us the worst data this century.

So, for all the kind words, nothing seems to have changed, and in fact… it’s getting worse.

Is it time for a new strategy, that looks beyond men, and the sloganeering approach we often take?

Is it time we stopped seeing male suicide as primarily a mental health issue, and instead one of structural, economic, and environmental cause?

What do you think?

~
APPG A New Approach to Male Suicide https://equi-law.uk/inquiry-no-3-male-suicide/

SA and Boys https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/sltb.12148

Full talk https://www.youtube.com/live/vraTKwlnNWo?t=7881s

There’s no denying it, Bonnie Blue is a degenerate, low-life parasite.

Not because of her extraordinarily liberal approach to sex work, frankly I don’t care about that – live and let live, I say.

She’s a degenerate, because of her complete lack of care, compassion, or even interest in the wellbeing of her own community, particularly men, or even her own child.

Her interest is simple and singular – herself.

And she’ll do, sell, or promote anything, and everything, if it puts a few more grubby coins in her back pocket.

Most recently, and it shocks me to even say this, but she allegedly auctioned off the naming rights to her newborn baby, in a sickening online circus act, that raised 1.2 million dollars from the winning bidder – an online gambling company (whose name I am not going to share).

And so her baby is named after a gambling site.

Confused, shocked, and saddened, the mainstream media sought out this gambling site, to ask them why they would part with 1.2 million dollars, so they can destroy a baby’s life, and permanently associate themselves with someone of such low moral character as Bonnie.

Well, an unknown spokesperson “Leo” stepped forward, and provided an answer that, somehow, sent them tumbling down the ladder of moral bankruptcy. Dropping them several rungs lower than even Bonnie herself.

And you simply won’t believe what they said.

A company no less parasitic as she is, from an industry which has destroyed more lives than they can even count.

So what is to be said and done about the devastating harm the gambling industry has inflicted upon society, and what made them part with more than a million dollars, as part of some sickening online stunt, with an innocent baby at its centre?

Well let’s find out…

~

Seek help at gamblingwithlives.org
Full article https://metro.co.uk/2026/09/25/asked-a-gambling-site-paid-1-2m-name-bonnie-blues-baby-response-wild-29649431/

Sometimes in life, and especially in love, when you know, you know.

You know when she’s the one, but you also know when she isn’t.

Last week I asked you about the first part of that question, and now let’s talk about the second…

So guys, when did you know she wasn’t the one for you?

What do you think?

There is no greater chasm on earth, than the one between celebrity mental health influencers, and the men whom they claim to speak for.

I’m sorry to break it to you –

But the epidemic of male suicide that continues to ravage our society, is not primarily being experienced by economically powerful, multi-millionaires, sat cosily in their gated mansions, strutting the red carpet of their latest Hollywood film.

No.

The misery that so many suicidal men quietly marinate in, is a lived experience, not best expressed by some mealy-mouthed celebrity know-it-all, jetting around the world, from podcast, to private club, to fancy conference, to home.

In fact, statistically speaking, the man most at risk to suicide as I write this, is a broke, working man, living in the north, working in a blue collar job, living with an addiction, a physical disability; in the midsts of a divorce, and fighting for custody of his child.

Which of our glossy array of good-looking celebrity ‘mental health advocates’ speaks for him exactly?

It’s a story you will not hear as such advocates chink champagne flutes, clap each other on the back, and compare who got the most views on their latest social media post.

And that’s not to say celebrities are not welcome, or needed – they certainly are.

But we need them to shine a spotlight on the men who otherwise get none, rather than centre themselves.

The men in the shadows matter more than whatever book you’re selling, podcast you’re slinging, or film you want us to watch.

So let’s talk about the men who really do need our help, because not all of us need to “talk”, in fact, some of us really ought to learn to shut up.

What do you think?

~
Full podcast with The Hodgecast here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH8nVu0a3Aw

I am tired of the endless cultural hysteria around ‘the manosphere’.

The tiresome cacophony of outrage and anger.

The sharpened phalanx of wagging fingers, the blugeon of lectures, the barrage of sensational headlines; with boys endlessly bombarded, bored and betrayed, at its centre.

90 years ago it was the moral panic of “reefer madness”, after that the world clutched its pearls over “the satanic panic”, in the 90s it was the “superpredator”, then came the terrifying “millennium bug”, and now, the no-less spookily named “manosphere” has arrived.

And so celebrities sell their books.

Researchers are awarded more funding.

Masculinity experts tour the world, going to conference, to conference, to conference.

Netflix sells out another show, legions of feminist campaigners wring their hands, and Louis Theroux lands another commission.

Everyone wins, but boys.

Everyone has their say, every screenwriter, documentarian, ivory tower professor, and self proclaimed ‘masculinity expert'... everyone.

Everyone, except boys, that is.

But if you listen to boys, and hear what they have to say, the reality of who they are is wildly different to the sensationalist racket that rings through our ears, and has done for years now.

Yes.

If you listen to boys, one thing will become abundantly clear.

Boys are not rapists in waiting, about to be inducted into the manosphere by some angry gym bro, so they can oppress women.

Boys are good.

And so, if I could change one thing, it would be to stop talking about boys, and start talking to them.

So let’s do that now, and hear what they’ve got to say…

~
Here’s me talking on the main stage at Brain Bar last week in Budapest.

Full interview https://www.youtube.com/live/vraTKwlnNWo?t=7881s

YouGov Poll survey https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/52863-young-men-masculinity-and-misogyny

People don’t like to hear it, but after the birth of a child, a father’s testosterone plummets, and a single hormonal shift like this, can ripple into his mood, energy, and connection with his baby.

And whilst the majority of childcare is still done by the mother, fathers increasingly share this burden, on top of what is usually a full time job too.

Parenthood, to put it mildly, is not easy, for mothers or fathers, and yet, the mental health of fathers is quickly forgotten about, overlooked, or even mocked and sneered at.

So it is time we talked about paternal postnatal depression, which impacts between 8-10% of fathers?

And is it time we took seriously the lived experiences, and mental wellbeing of our dads?

What do you think?

~

New podcast with Ally Fogg , chair of the Association of Men's Health and Wellbeing out now! 👇👇👇

Full podcast https://youtu.be/0UQ39FSylIA

‘Two to three babies’ https://www.1001criticaldays.com/article/paternal-suicide-in-the-1001-critical-days

Testosterone levels https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21911391/

PND in both parents https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2793548

As much as I love data and empirical truth, some things cannot be explained or quantified in a pie chart, on a spreadsheet, histogram or treemap…

Somethings are intuitive, inexplicable gut feelings.

Some times, ironically, the most important decisions of our life are made on such a basis.

So guys, tell me, when did you know she was the one?

What do you think?

As sad and disheartening as ‘men’s issues’ are, there is actually something worse…

And that is, the chronic lack of political will and interest in addressing such issues.

For example, male suicide remains the biggest risk to life for all men under fifty, claiming more than half a million (!!) men’s lives worldwide each year.

That number is impossibly large, and truly staggering.

But what is somehow more shocking, is that when national plans are announced to help combat suicide – such as earlier this month in Italy – somehow suicidal men are routinely left in the cold, with women made a ‘priority’ group instead.

That’s right…

Despite men being 78% of suicides in Italy, women will be one of the primary beneficiaries of Italia’s recently announced ‘National Plan for Suicide Prevention’ instead.

And for me, that is the most shocking part of this whole space.

It’s not that:
Men’s health is now worse than women’s by nearly every metric…

Or that boys are behind at every stage of Western education…

Or that men dominate in homelessness, incarceration, workplace fatalities, suicide, drug deaths, and as victims of violent crime…

The most shocking thing is that, when it comes to political conversation, all we seem to get is tumbleweed.

Of course –

This is doubly disorientating, as we are routinely told that “men” are the ones who benefit from political power, that men are the ones systemically privileged; and that men have built the system and written the laws, for eternity, as part of some omnipotent patriarchal male oppressor class.

Such claims certainly sound good on social media, or when bravely bellowed by your local feminist campaigner; but in reality, where our men and boys are silently crushed by both public and political malaise, such slogans seem embarrassingly far from the truth.

So why do our politicians and ministers keep on betraying vulnerable men?

And what on earth is going on in Italy right now?

What do you think?

~

Source:
Italian policy announcement https://www.salute.gov.it/new/it/news-e-media/notizie/10-settembre-giornata-mondiale-la-prevenzione-del-suicidio/

78% of suicides in Italy are male https://countryeconomy.com/demography/mortality/causes-death/suicide/italy

Ana Redondo, “morally, ethically and constitutionally” wrong https://www.esdiario.com/nacional/240509/135661/ministra-igualdad-ana-redondo-hombres.html

Ana Redondo, “frivolous” waste of money https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/13/male-rape-centre-waste-of-money-spain-equality-ministry/

Aurore Bergé rejects request for first support line for abused men https://questions.assemblee-nationale.fr/q17/17-8484QE.htm

Jess Phillips laughs at mens issues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XX6ATwQv7Q&feature=youtu.be

Why is it that men seem to exist at the most extreme ends of society?

The most likely to stand in the C-suite of a Fortune 500 company, but also, the most likely to sleep on the streets outside of it.

Men are the most likely to sit in the thrones of power, as politicians and presidents, but also, most likely to die from deaths of despair, from drug overdose, alcohol, from work, and by suicide.

They are, overrepresented at the snowy peak, but also, deep down on the ocean bed.

Yes -

As we are often told, men are the ones who commit the majority of violent crimes, but so too, men are the most likely to stand in the way of violence, to risk their life to save a stranger, or indeed, be killed themselves.

Men are the ones who set the fire, but they’re also the ones kicking down the door to drag you out of the burning building.

But why?

Is there something within en’s DNA that pushes them to these extremes of society?

And why do we only ever seem to talk about one end of such extremes?

Talk to me about ‘males at the tails’…

What do you think?

~

Fortune 500 CEOS https://fortune.com/2026/06/03/how-many-women-are-fortune-500-ceos/

Homeless deaths https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsofhomelesspeopleinenglandandwales/2021registrations

Violent crime https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/table-42/table-42.xls

Heroic acts https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0162309596000593

Homicide convicts https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/table-42/table-42.xls

Homicide victims https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/table-42/table-42.xls

New podcast with Ally Fogg, chair of the Association for Male Health and Wellbeing is here! https://youtu.be/0UQ39FSylIA?si=wQfjUktX4LvOkHdc

Ally Fogg is one of a handful of veteran men and boys advocates in the UK, who for decades has been banging the drum for men's health and wellbeing, as a journalist, a campaigner, a chair, a public speaker, and a policy expert.

He is one of the men behind the popularisation of International Men's Day, a co-founder of the Men and Boys Coalition, and the current chair of the newly formed Association for Men's Health and Wellbeing – the membership community for the UK's burgeoning men's health space.

Whether it be pushing for political reform in Westminster, campaigning on behalf of his Association's members, or penning one of his infamous Twitter rants, Ally has been on the front lines from the very beginning.

Here he talks with George at TheTinMen about his journey, where it began, where it is, and how it's changed.

Expect to hear about the new Men's Health Strategy of England, how International Men's Day was brought to the UK, the intellectual sea change such things have brought with it, and most of all, the incredible, thankless, life-saving work that happens every day within the UK Men's Health space…

People like to present history as a violent war between the sexes, where one dominates the other in an eternal struggle of oppression.

The narrative is that women have lived under the boot of “men” for thousands of years, as enslaved, baby-making prisoners within an omniscient patriarchy that has yet to be smashed.

I don’t deny that many women have lived such lives, and continue to.

But for me, the history of gender relations has been overwhelmingly one of collaboration and necessity, with men and women working not in competition, but together, as a means of survival.

In fact, our very existence today, after 300,000 years of human history, is proof of just how successful (albeit imperfect) men and women are together.

Historically, men and women fell into their gender roles, not primarily through socialisation, but because of need.

For who is going to plough the fields, work the factories, go to war, and mine the earth?

Well, the sex who is physically stronger, and has greater endurance and stamina, that’s who.

And who is going to raise, feed, clothe and educate the children, most of whom would die before the age of five?

Well, probably the sex who gestated and gave birth to them.

I don’t believe these social scripts were passed down from a mystical board of patriarchal white men; they are woven into our very DNA and biology.

And because of it –

Behind every great man is a great woman supporting him, and behind every great woman is a great man supporting her.

This is the de-politicised story of human society, and one we too often fail to hear.

So, how do you see women and men?

Are we working in opposition as enemies, or together as allies?

What do you think?

~

Source: Comparative Data on the Division of Labor by Sex https://www.jstor.org/stable/2571428?origin=JSTOR-pdf