Per's MANifesto: An electronic newsletter of news and opinion
on man-bashing, anti-male stereotypes and other great moral
principles. February, 1997.
WELCOME, READERS. This month we look at "The Wages of Men." If
you know feminists, you know that they set their eyes on the elite
among men and then demand "equality." They seem to overlook the lower
rungs, where most of the people doing dangerous, dirty jobs are men.
Feminists aren't demanding equality of risk, just equality of results.
And they are demanding absolute safety for themselves in the
workplace, even safety from unwanted comments. They seem considerably
less concerned about men who die on the job. But then, the safety
measures required to save men's lives would increase the costs of
goods and services. And this might put a crimp in a feminist's ability
to jet to the next high-powered seminar on women as victims.
So let's look at the wages of women -- and "The Wages of Men."
(MANifesto is now on the Web, at
http://shell.idt.net/~per2/manifest.htm)
INDEX:
I. SEEING THROUGH THE GLASS CEILING
II. THE WAGES OF MEN
III. MORE CHOICES WITHOUT VOICES
IV. FLYING HIGH WITH THE FIRST WIVES CLUB
V. COSMOWATCH
VI. PER'S PICKS
SEEING THROUGH THE GLASS CEILING
Women make less than men, and the reason is discrimination.
That's the popular wisdom, brought to you by the news media
and their feminist sources.
But this popular wisdom is more popular than wise.
The Independent Women's Forum, a nonprofit group based in
Washington, D.C., and the American Enterprise Institute recently
release a report titled "Women's Figures." It points out how flawed
this assumption is.
"In many cases where women remain behind men, market forces
explain outcomes more readily than overt discrimination," the report
says. "Occupation, seniority, absenteeism, and intermittent work-force
participation are all critical variables in accounting for pay
disparities. In other words, those who assume that discrimination is
solely to blame for wage differences are drawing unsubstantiated
conclusions. The issue is far more complex."
But woe unto those who attempt to challenge that popular
wisdom. "Challenging those long-held assumptions about women is a
perilous exercise, particularly because many groups have an investment
in maintaining myths such as the wage gap and the glass ceiling. Both
the wage gap and the glass ceiling are rhetorically useful but
factually corrupt catch phrases."
True, it's not popular to note that the choices women make
often influence, or even determine, their earning power. When women
make equal choices (and equal sacrifices) then there is little
difference in pay. "Economist June O'Neill notes, 'When earnings
comparisons are restricted to men and women more similar in their
experience and life situations, the measured earnings differentials
are typically quite small.' "
And there are other areas where there is obvious and growing
inequalities, yet feminists aren't objecting. Why? Because the
inequality is in their favor. "Women are represented in great numbers
at the college and postgraduate levels and have outnumbered men in
graduate school since the mid-1980s. In 1996, women represent 54
percent of the class admitted to Yale Medical School. In 1994, women
earned more associate, bachelor's and master's degrees than men."
We wonder why equality is no longer an issue when women are
ahead. But that is the way feminism works. Feminism sets its sights on
the best conditions enjoyed by men and demands equality of results.
Not equality of sacrifice.
You can read more excerpts from "Women's Figures at the IWF
web site, http://www.iwf.org/.
But as instructive as this report is, it still doesn't mention
one of the greatest gender gaps today -- the death of men on the job.
So let's take a look at "The Wages of Men."
==========
THE WAGES OF MEN
When feminists claim that women aren't paid the same for equal
work, ask them if they know the ratio of work-related deaths for men
and women. Most of them probably don't, and don't want to hear about
it. But the fact is that men make up about 95 percent of workers who
die because of workplace trauma.
When employers have a dirty or dangerous job they have to
fill, they usually have to pay more to get someone to do it. Jobs like
waitress or receptionist might pay less, but they are safer. Women
could apply for those higher-paying, more dangerous jobs. But by and
large they opt for safer jobs. Feminists complain that such women make
less money. But they don't complain when the people dying on the job
are men.
Men face a double whammy from this today. First, when all the
safe jobs are taken, that leaves the dangerous ones primarily for men.
Thus the ones getting sick or injured on the job are overwhelming men.
Then feminists ignore such sacrifices and demand affirmative-action
discrimination against men to close the supposed "pay gap." Feminists
are so well organized -- and the news media and politicians are so
cooperative -- that feminists have managed to turn the higher death
rates of men into a victimhood issue for women.
But we decided to take a look at what is really going on.
Percentages are abstract concepts. We decided to put a human
face on what is really happening. Every time the news mentioned a
worker being killed on the job, we clipped the article and noted
whether the victim was a man or a woman. The results are below.
This is not a scientific survey, and we aren't presenting it
as such. (We'll let feminists do this with their "anecdata.") The
intention was to look at the human side -- to note the names and the
jobs of workers who are killed. These people aren't just statistics:
they're human beings.
Here is what we found:
-- David D. Hart, 36, died at the Lobdell-Emory plant in
Argos, Indiana, when he became trapped in a press. The coroner listed
the cause of death as multiple blunt force injuries to the head and
chest. Hart was a maintenance worker. (Remember, feminists want
secretaries and receptionists to have equal pay with maintenance
workers.)
-- A man whose name was not immediately released was killed
February 4th when a clock tower collapsed on him at a demolition site
in Dallas. The man was using a large backhoe to clear rubble at a
building that once housed the world headquarters of the Dr Pepper
company. "Demolition of a building is always a risky venture," said a
spokesman for the investment company that ordered the demolition.
-- Elevator repairman David Flanagan, 22, was crushed to death
while servicing an elevator in Troy, New York, January 21st. Police
said he became trapped and was crushed between the elevator and the
concrete wall.
-- Mark Seavey, 37, died January 21 from burns he received in
an explosion on the painting line at the Vermeer Manufacturing factory
in Pella, Iowa.
-- Paul Dorweiler, 33, died in a fall while contracting to
clear snow off the roof of a business building in Dawson, Minnesota.
-- A 37-year-old man drowned February 3 when the dump truck he
was driving rolled into a pond at a quarry near Sherwood, Oregon.
-- On February 2nd, cab driver Phillip R. Collins, 53, of
Pleasantville, N.J., was found dead at the wheel of his cab, which was
engulfed in flames. An autopsy showed that he had been shot twice in
the back of the head. Collins worked as a mail clerk for the county
government and moonlighted as a taxi driver.
-- Three Coast Guard members -- all men -- died February 2nd
in the Pacific Ocean off the Washington coast while on a rescue
mission. Their 44-foot boat capsized en route to a rescue effort at
the mouth of the Quillayute River. A forth crew member, also a man,
was found alive and rescued. The crew had been sent to help a
sailboat, the Gale Runner, which reported it was taking on water. A
Coast Guard helicopter rescued the man and woman aboard the sailboat.
-- Three Fort Rucker Army soldiers -- all men -- killed
January 31 during training. Their UH-1H Iroquois helicopter crashed in
rural Geneva County, Alabama. The instructor pilot was identified as
Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Robert P. Leaver, 35, of New Bedford,
Mass. The two student pilots were Army 1st Lt. Scott R. Cummins, 25,
of Germantown, Tennessee, and Air Force 2nd Lt. Jason J. Baker, 24, of
Decorah, Iowa.
-- Ba Huynh, 26, a deliveryman for a Chinese restaurant in
Boston, was shot in the stomach by robbers but survived. Meanwhile, in
crime-plagued Gary, Indiana, Federal Express has abandoned a measure
designed to protect the safety of its deliverymen. The
violence-plagued city had the country's highest per-capita murder rate
in 1995. So FedEx couriers had been working earlier hours to be off
the streets at dark. "We have had a number of incidents in the recent
past when employees felt their safety was being threatened," FedEx
spokesman Greg Rossiter said from the company's headquarters in
Memphis, Tenn. But under pressure from Gary's Mayor Scott King,
they've gone back to the later schedule. The lives of couriers just
can't compete with the importance of speedy deliveries.
These are all the news stories we happened upon since setting
out to look for them for this issue of MANifesto. Looking back on
them, every single death recorded here was the death of a man. This
isn't a scientific cross section, of course, and we don't claim it is.
But if we had encountered a news item about a woman being killed
because of her job, we would have included it here. There were so many
stories about men being killed because death on the job is one of the
few exclusive men's clubs left.
And, judging by statistics, we would have had to heard about
ninety-five stories of men's job-related deaths to find five stories
about women.
But those are cold statistics. The men described above are
real. They did dangerous work, and it caught up with them. The only
concern that feminists seem to have for these men is that they might
have been earning a bit more than a secretary in an air-conditioned
office.
These men did dangerous work, and it killed them. But the
nature of men is such that even the lack of work can hurt them.
Consider Milton B. Talbert of Charlottesville, Virginia, a
former police lieutenant.
Talbert held the job for 34 years before coming down with
pneumonia in 1994. He was ready to go back to work, but his wife says
the department pressured him to take early retirement or limited
hours. Losing the job led to a deep depression that caused him to take
his life, says his widow, Shirley Talbert.
She is suing for $2.85 million in damages.
==========
MORE CHOICES WITHOUT VOICES
Here are some domestic violence cases you won't see feminists
becoming outraged over.
A newborn girl was found dead, wrapped in towels and stuffed
in a garbage bag in the trunk of her mothers car, which was parked
outside the Holy Family Catholic Church. The coroner determined the
baby was born alive sometime between Jan. 7-8 and was full-term.
Jennifer Pyles, 21, of Steubenville, Ohio, was charged on
February 5th with involuntary manslaughter and abuse of a corpse.
Maximum sentence if convicted: five years.
The charges could be upgraded to murder if it's determined
that she intended to kill the baby.
In Greensboro, North Carolina, a newborn baby was found dead
in a garbage dumpster. The baby was just a few days old and still had
an umbilical cord attached when it died.
Law enforcement officials have not found the mother. They
organized a funeral for the anonymous child.
-- In Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, a woman was sentenced to
four to eight years in prison in the death of her newborn baby.
The judge said that a lighter sentence for Cheryl Fries, 32,
would "cheapen the life of that child that was taken away."
Fries' infant daughter suffocated and bled to death on Oct. 9,
1995.
==========
FLYING HIGH WITH THE FIRST WIVES CLUB
Speaking of domestic violence: If you saw the film "The First
Wives Club," you know how positively knee-slapping funny domestic
violence is, when done by women against men.
And if you read some of the reaction from feminist columnists,
you know how "empowering" a movie like this is. And how bad men are
for objecting to women who finally "fight back." To feminists, revenge
isn't just policy. It's a sacrament.
So let's side with the feminists on this one. Let's put our
collective foot down and tell all those up-tight, humorless men to
stop throwing a hissy over the idea that revenge against men is fun,
constructive, justified, and never, ever excessive.
For instance, let's look all have a good chuckle over the
little bit of empowerment practiced by Deborah Loeding of Waldwick,
New Jersey.
The target for her empowering exercise was her ex-husband. In
feminist circles, this puts him one notch away from Attila the Hun. So
the guy must have deserved it, being an ex-husband and all.
What did she do? Well, get ready to slap them knees. She baked
marijuana into some bread and gave it to him without telling him what
was in it.
Are we laughing yet? Maybe not, because this doesn't show how
he might have gotten hurt -- which of course is the funny part if
you're a feminist.
Loading's ex-husband had to take a random drug test at his
job. He tested positive and was fired.
There! What can be funnier than destroying a man's reputation
and livelihood through deceptive and false practices?
Oh, there were some complications to the plot, though.
Her ex-husband is a pilot for Continental Airlines.
So I guess some of those up-tight men might complain that she
should have left the nation's airline passengers out of her revenge
plot. Or that in a midair emergency, there are no time for slowed
reactions that could make the difference between a bad scare and a
terrible tragedy.
But hey, we have to remember that revenge is empowering.
Lighten up. Smile.
And make sure that the next time she pulls this stunt, the
airplane is loaded with feminists.
(Oh, one more thing. Loeding admitted to the plot and her ex
got his job back, and now Continental is suing her. We hope a great
big fat penalty against her gives her the wonderfully empowering
experience of learning to be responsible for her actions.)
==========
COSMOWATCH
Cosmopolitan is a leading women's magazine. Its articles and
attitudes run counter to feminist claims that women are oppressed by
"the beauty trap," that women are less lustful, unfaithful and
materialistic than men, that women are just somehow nicer. Cosmo far
outsells Ms. Magazine. And the "Cosmo girl" knows darn well she can
get what she wants by selling her sexuality or playing hardball at the
office. So what attitudes are women buying when they pick up Cosmo?
Here's some items from the March 1997 issue:
-- Article: "Your New Man: How to Make the Sex So good He'll
Be Groveling."
-- An article on "relationship milestones" that often judges
relationships in monetary terms. If "you read ski brochures and make
plans for next season," that rates a "thumbs up." Likewise if "you
agree on a dream getaway destination." Also rated are the "first gift
exchange," exchanging house keys, and moving in.
-- Article: "Saturday Night Sexy: Slip on these new wearably
bare evening pieces and knock his socks off."
-- Article: "David Duchovny Undresses four Us (and Talks):
Getting X-rated With the Sexiest Man on Television."
-- MTV hostess Carmen Electra gives dating tips that are "easy
as 1-2-3. Wear something hot. Stay true to yourself. No kissing on the
first date. Well, maybe a little kiss." (So what does that boil down
to? Tease, don't please.)
==========
PER'S PICKS
The Per's MANifesto Home Page now has a very few, select links
that might be of interest to you. Visit the Home Page at
http://shell.idt.net/~per2/index.htm
In additions to those links, we'd also like to plug the
following:
The Independent Women's Forum (referred to above) features
well-researched articles that speak out against extreme feminist
claims and rhetoric. Contributors have taken the message to the
mainstream media, including The Wall Street Journal. See the site at:
http://www.iwf.org/
And here's another site that takes a very personal stance
against man-bashing and feminist extremism. It's Vera's Feminist Lies
Homepage, http://falcon.nji.com/~vera/. Please visit Vera's site, add
some kind words to her guestbook, and thank her for being strong and
independent enough to refuse to toe the feminist line.
==========
NEXT ISSUE: Is it true that medieval lords once had a "first night"
right to sleep with brides on their wedding nights? We'll take a look
at another long-standing bit of folklore in an issue with the theme
"Stupid Law Tricks."
=============================
THE FINE PRINT
MANifesto is a monthly newsletter containing news and opinion for
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(MANifesto is copyright 1997 by Per. Please feel free to copy,
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excerpt any section, please excerpt it in its entirety.)
-----
Tired of man-bashing and anti-male stereotypes? Read
Per's MANifesto, a monthly newsletter on anti-male attitudes
and related topics. An informative package of news and humor.
http://shell.idt.net/~per2/manifest.htm
-----
Tired of man-bashing and anti-male stereotypes? Read
Per's MANifesto, a monthly newsletter on anti-male attitudes
and related topics. An informative package of news and humor.
http://shell.idt.net/~per2/manifest.htm
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