Stabbing attackers were brave
IT’S time to stop demonising masculinity, manhood, chivalry and boyish bravado.
We hear and read so much about male privilege, the sinister patriarchy, toxic masculinity and the evils of “boys being boys”. At times, it seems maleness itself is under attack.
But watching brave men run towards danger and subdue an erratic man holding a blood-soaked knife in Sydney last week should be a sobering reminder that masculinity can be a much-desired quality.
The eagerness for feminists, male and female, to characterise male traits as inherently negative is damaging to young men.
The flight or fight instinct is in all of us but more often than not it’s men who risk their personal safety to save strangers from harm.
One could argue the men who stepped in to subdue and apprehend Mert Ney are lifesavers. How many more innocent people would have been hurt or killed if the alleged offender hadn’t been neutralised?
Ney stands accused of fatally stabbing Michaela Dunn and stabbing a second woman during an alleged rampage through Sydney’s CBD last week.
It takes enormous courage for ordinary people carrying nothing more than chairs and milk crates to approach a disturbed individual armed with a knife. And yet a number of men did just that last Tuesday afternoon.
Three of the men — Lee Cuthbert, Paul O’Shaughnessy and Luke O’Shaughnessy — hail from Manchester in northern England and worked together to contain the disturbed Ney who could be heard yelling “Allahu Akbar” and “shoot me” during the rampage. Thankfully, none of those who pursued Ney were hurt during the process. But being a good Samaritan often comes at a steep price.
Courageous father-of-three Brendan Keilar and Dutch backpacker Paul de Waard were shot when they went to the aid of Kaera Douglas as she was being bashed by CBD killer and Hells Angel bikie Christopher Wayne Hudson in 2007. Tragically, Mr Keilar lost his life. We also saw brave bystanders take considerable risks to try to intervene before Bourke St killer Dimitrious Gargasoulas went on a murderous rampage, killing six people and injuring many more.
The mother in me winces at such reckless bravado but one must admire their valour in wanting to stop others being harmed. Male characteristics that should be celebrated are more often disparaged.
Feminists have hijacked the term “toxic masculinity” and turned it into an all-purpose condemnation of maleness. It can describe appalling behaviour, such as violence and sexism, to attributes deemed “problematic” by the sisterhood, such as male competitiveness, ambition and selfishness.
Boys and men are under attack for inherent traits that are neither harmful nor toxic but almost always presented in those terms.
We are told that we must deconstruct masculinity. Smash the patriarchy. All men must take responsibility for the violence of the few and every man is a potential predator.
Earlier last week we heard this gibberish on the ABC’s The Drum program: “That’s the first act of violence of the patriarchy, the desecration of the feminine that sits inside the masculine, that sits inside boys.”
Grooming company Gillette embraced its inner feminist and launched an ad campaign centred on denouncing “toxic masculinity” which, according to its cringe-worthy TV commercials, includes behaviours such as boys playfighting while men stand over a BBQ and say “boys will be boys” — and other crimes including mansplaining and admiring bikini clad women. Gillette patronised its audience, who were encouraged to do better. Many did just that by finding a new brand of grooming products.
Reputational damage like that is not cheap and Gillette’s “go woke, go broke” masterstroke has no doubt contributed to a massive $11.8 billion non-cash writedown of the company.
What a shock that the average man who is not a sexist, violent miscreant doesn’t want to be treated like one by a shaving company.
The folk who dominate the media and academia and argue gender is fluid and a social construct have waged a war against masculinity and male traits. That can’t be healthy for young boys and men who have longed trailed girls academically from preschool to university.