#movember

Double checking the map before crossing the river.

Utah

"Last year Movember formed an alliance with UN Women. Movember’s CEO Michelle Terry became one of four global “Champions” feted at the HeForShe summit, designed to mobilize the world for gender equality. .. Terry made a series of commitments to UN women including that Movember would promote “healthy masculinities” – which generally means publicly denigrating men and taking boys to task for their toxic masculinity.

"Terry also promised Movember would implement “inclusive hiring”, develop mentorship programs for women, and maintain gender parity in her senior leadership group – goals which few would see as relevant to a men’s health charity.

"But Terry has certainly nailed the female leadership issue. Her leadership group is now 70% women.

"One of the key initiatives Movember is supporting – to the tune of $2.35 million - is the WayBack Suicide Prevention Service, run by Beyond Blue, a charity tackling depression. What’s disappointing is that while 3 in 4 suicides involve men, 60% of the people helped by WayBack are women.

"Even though it might make sense to have men supported by other men, Movember takes a different tack. Given that the suicide prevention sector is female dominated – with over 70% of mental health nurses, psychologists and other support people being women - the focus of much of Movember’s suicide prevention work is training these women to talk to men. Stop men slipping through the cracks, says their promotion, claiming they provide the latest strategies to teach these women to talk to vulnerable men.

"This means they blame men for being unwilling to reach out to a friend for “fear of being judged or appearing vulnerable or weak.” Here’s where Movember’s healthy masculinities ideology seeps in and the program becomes one more way of fixing men rather than helping them. They push the standard feminist narrative, claiming men are defective and if they are suffering it must be their own fault.

"It’s easy to prove that’s utter nonsense. One recent study found that 91% of male suicides had actually sought help. And there’s good evidence that most male suicides are not linked to mental health issues.

"It’s not only the Mo sisterhood which is pushing this line. There are males who are key players in the charity, like Australian psychologist Zac Siedler who, as their Global Director of Men's Health Research, is responsible for all these programs.

"Self-described feminist Siedler has become the leftist media’s favored source for pronouncements about toxic masculinity and other male deficiencies. Recently he wrote an article assuring ABC readers that parents shouldn’t be concerned about sons being falsely accused of sexual misconduct. “The number of false accusations that stick is negligible,” Siedler opined. “If your son does not cross the line, if he doesn't teeter on the ‘edge of consent,’ if he doesn't misuse his power to control or belittle others, he will be just fine.” Oh yeh?