Men die about five years earlier than women. Men are six times more likely to be injured on the job, commit suicide three to four times more often and are three times more likely to be murdered. In almost every category of disease, men suffer more often than women.
An overwhelming majority of the homeless are men. In New York City, for example, the proportion of homeless men to women is ten to one. The New York Times reports that about one-third of the nation’s homeless are veterans. Many of these men were stripped of their liberty and forced into combat simply because they were men. Now, while our government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on women’s programs and services, these men sleep on park benches and in railroad stations. It’s shameful. And it gets worse: Tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans have committed suicide since the end of the Vietnam War. Does anyone care?
When it comes to unwanted, unborn children, men have responsibilities without rights. A man’s life can be held hostage to an unplanned pregnancy, but his female partner will have complete control over her reproductive life and future. He can’t force motherhood on her but she can certainly force fatherhood on him, even if she has defrauded him about contraception. Only women have the extraordinary freedom to enjoy sexual intimacy free from the fear of forced parenthood. This is an incredible power, taken for granted by most women and denied, by law, to all men.
After divorce, men lose custody of their children about ninety percent of the time and seldom receive child support when they win custody. A father who seeks custody often finds himself the target of numerous false accusations, an apparently routine feature of modern divorce. “No fault” divorce has become a disaster, mostly for men, since most break-ups are initiated by women. The economics of divorce is one reason why, according to the United States Census Bureau, female householders have a net worth 141% that of male householders. Furthermore, most of the money spent by consumers is spent by women, not by men. While men have the burden of earning more money, women spend most of it.
Social custom still requires men to do most of the work of initiating new sexual relationships. The woman is the sexual celebrity, the man the sexual supplicant. Nothing much has changed. Despite over forty years of contemporary feminism, many professional women still place themselves high on sexual pedestals, expecting to be courted and pursued and paid for.
Sexist grooming and dress codes deny to men the creative freedom all women take for granted… circumcision represents an actual and symbolic assault on male sexuality… anti-male sexism is rampant in academia, in the media and in the criminal justice system… the false accusation has become a legally acceptable way for a woman to destroy the life of an innocent man… violence against men in families goes mostly unreported… In many ways women receive special privilege and protection while male pain and suffering are trivialized or ignored by our society. Men and women who dare to speak out for fairness and equality are often ridiculed or censored into silence.
At The National Center For Men we have a long track record of assertively addressing all legitimate men’s concerns. As far as we know, NCM is the only organization in the world that has focused on all men’s issues, without exception. We have always understood that all men’s issues are connected and that a successful men’s movement must be willing to seriously consider all of them. The power of our movement comes from the compelling themes, such as equal choice and equal partnership between men and women, themes which form the foundation of all our issues.