What is a Man today?

I know that this is fighting talk and I am headed for trouble but my one loyal reader is interested in what is it that determines the title of Man (as in the male of the species homo-sapiens)? Recall that this is a noble title with noble antecedents!

I have understood for a long time that being a man (male) is not a simple thing and that women are a jump or two ahead of men when it comes to many aspects of life – they have to be - after all life is created within them. For instance women are generally more nurturing than men; women generally have better developed social skills than men; women generally are more dextrous (more developed fine motor skills) than men.

Please note: in spite of what many men would like to believe, there is no difference in the levels of intelligence – despite the jokes and disparaging comments about “dumb blondes”! Women are, generally, no less intelligent than men.

Manhood has been honoured since time began with many attributes that have been associated with masculinity and virility, which refer to male qualities and male gender roles. But being a Man has a bit more going for it than this – men are not (I hope and trust) just useful in procreation or in lifting heavy boxes or for reaching items on the top of supermarket shelves. No, no! We are more than that, much more.

While it is a physiological fact that men, generally, are larger and physically stronger than their female counterparts this “advantage” has associated social effects. It is generally accepted that males (for reasons never fully understood or explained) are more adept at map reading with a generally better sense of direction than females. Similarly males, generally, have better mechanical skill than females and (in my limited experience) seem to be more logical. I will however admit to not fully understanding my wife of thirty-four years – I am sometimes baffled by the insight, the deep understanding and the (occasionally) completely ‘out of left field’ comments and opinions that she expresses.

There is a major fault in many males (I have to admit) in that they often assume that this physical “advantage” in size and strength extends to  other human attributes and that men are in some way superior to women with greater intelligence, a better ability to organize and a better ability to guide and lead. These perceived apparent superior abilities, by males, are at the root of the reason why there are so few women in leadership roles – or so I firmly believe.  

It is true that most heroes of myth and legend are men; most world leaders (of countries and companies) are men; most of the best chefs are men; most of the best architects are men and there is a long list of other areas in which men seem to predominate. There is, however, a much darker side to males which cannot be hidden.

Men are greater risk takers than women. This attitude towards risk taking, and the normally greater associated dangers, is a major contributor in the fact that men generally die younger and that most serious crimes (crimes of violence – rape, grievous bodily harm and murder) are committed by men. There is also no known reason why but most psychopaths are male.

But like it or not men and women are together in this world and need to learn – surprisingly even in this Twenty-first Century – that each provides essential attributes that enhances the other; that “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”; that men and women are different from each other in many ways but that there are more similarities than differences and that we need each other, no matter what.

Finally there is a fascinating quote in an old Weekend Australian newspaper (14/15^th June 2003) which I read again the other day. It is extracted from “Anatomica - The Complete Reference to the Human Body” (Random House) which illustrates the extraordinary qualities of Nature (which is not defined) and which really tell me that “Man and Woman” are indeed partners in a strange and as yet not fully understood species of animal called Homo-sapiens:-

“Women are characterized as the weaker sex but it is men who need a helping hand from Mother Nature. The male disadvantage extends throughout life. From birth, male babies are less likely to survive childhood, while at the other end of life, on average men die younger. Nature maintains the balance between men and women by ensuring more boys are born than girls. For every 100 girls born in Australia about 106 boys are born. A study published by the European Society of Human Reproduction found that ... the usual ratio is 511 boys for every 489 girls in every 1000 births (statistically 104.5 boys for every 100 girls).”

 And I proudly declare that I am NOT a misogynist – after thirty four years of marriage I wouldn’t dare claim otherwise!

Injustice is always the problem.

The thing about injustice is that it is not a “one size” fits all. What is perceived as just for you may not be seen as just by me. And then there is the added complexity of perceptions. Without knowing the full range of facts I may perceive something as just or unjust.

This emphasizes the importance of ethics because in these cases ethics is, sadly, often forgotten or ignored – which is why they are unethical (obviously).

Spend a moment to think about this. As a hypothetical - I may feel it is just that I am now a wealthy man because I worked hard all my life and built up a large organization that employs many people. Others may have views that differ. They may consider (or perceive) that I exploited my workers by paying them the lowest possible wage so as to maximize my profits; or that I used my economic “clout” to force suppliers to reduce their costs to me, again to maximize my profits.

It matters not who the suppliers or what the products – banks and financial products, miners and raw materials, manufacturers and semi-finished products, machine tools or whatever. Forcing my suppliers to reduce the cost of my “inputs” forces them to reduce the wages they pay their workers; it forces them to consider alternatives such as lowering the quality of what they make. To meet my demands and to maximize their profits (that, also, is what they are in business for) they may consider activities which are criminal; acts such as “sweat shop” conditions and/or employing child labour; acts such as prosthetic companies filling breast implants with industrial gel; acts such as butchers selling horse meat as beef; acts such as adding melamine to baby milk formula; acts such as pharmaceutical companies reducing the number of, or “adjusting”, test results for medical products, and so on and so on.

All this is done, often, without a thought for the purchaser or end user.  Either way it is a matter of perception – mine or yours, and ethics.

Then of course there is the greatest cause of unethical conduct and injustice ever known – the gender difference – male and female. Women, the female of the species, seem to have been discriminated against forever, certainly as far as we can confirm, at least since written records began. Why just because women, generally, are less physically strong are they discriminated against by men? Is it because women are the “gate keepers” of sexual union?  If any force is used against a woman for sexual favours it is considered rape, which in most societies is a crime. I don’t know why men have this perception that they are superior to women – but it seems strange that this discrimination exists at all, because every man was, of a certainty, born of a woman – and most sons hold their mothers in high esteem. So why denigrate, why abuse or discriminate against someone else’s mother or someone who will, in all probability, become a mother?

Possibly the second greatest cause of unethical conduct is skin colour. There is no known way of choosing your own skin colour - you are born with it. No one is born superior to anyone else. It is, again, a matter of perception. Just because someone may look “different” is no reason for discrimination or abuse. To discriminate against someone, or to abuse them because of the colour of their skin is not only unjust but also unethical.

The other major cause of injustice and unethical conduct is religion. Why in God’s name (quite literally) this should be so is beyond my comprehension. There is – as I believe – only one God. So to me it matter not what He, She, It is called and I cannot think of any good reason why He, She, It would care what name we humans use; we humans who live on a miniscule speck of rock at the edge of a very ordinary galaxy that is one of billions of galaxies in a incomprehensibly large universe which He, She, It presumable created (the big bang?). I mean really, does it matter what name we use? Anyway how would anyone know what He, She, It thinks or feels about the issue of a name – or anything else for that matter?

All these are matters of perception – about gender, skin colour and religion – just a person’s opinion. And yet millions have died; millions have been abused; millions have been tortured all because of perceptions which, inevitably lead to injustice.

But then has injustice of any kind - force, abuse, discrimination, torture, cruelty - ever changed anyone’s opinion or perception? I doubt it!