Feminism can make you wait

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 10 December 1975, Page 22

Feminism can make you wait

(By

STAN DARLING)

What can feminism do for men*’ Not much, according to some male speakers . at a National Organisation for Women panel discussion in Christchurch last evening. But it can do a lot to them. A reporter for “The Press” ■ learned one thing that feminism can do for men. It can make them wait. The panel was due to start f at 7.30 p.m., according to the notice. This was the course of non-events: 7.30 p.m.—Women started filing into the Carlton Hotel’s Hagley Room, to quaff a few ales and get S invoked in the merriment with great gusto. 7.40 p.m. — The feminist magazine "Broadsheet” v was hawked by a r woman (you can get into v deAn trouble by calling,! mem mdies' nese>r »avs). Cm the back <_jver f *as an advertisement u

showing a bare-chested male rock singer having a writhing relationship with his guitar. 8.04 p.m.—An inconsiderate male oaf sloshed beer over a table as he hurried to a sideline seat and proceeded to knock back a few. 8.14 p.m.—The largelyfema'e crowd was still fronting up to the bar in droves. 8.23 p.m.—The reporter was told to "write it nice, boy, or somebody might forcibly rearrange your masculinity.” Things were getting a bit raucous. 8.32 p.m.—At last, the meeting was beginning to get under way All the male nanel members were young. Three of them relied heavily on humour, which verged on condescending to the female liberation movement, jut they mane up for it bv making some understanding remarks.

I Three of them said men! were understandably threat- ■ ened. because women were trying — successfully and rightfully — to slice off a chunk of the “power pie.” One woman disagreed! i loudly. She said that! I feminists were not interested' in playing the power games.] I They were looking for a! I better life for everybody. i The women did not seem! Ito mind the jibes. They were! .secure enough in their position to take a little nervous; i satire. Mr Howard Keane, one of; ] a group who have started putting out a local broadsheet! I of their own called “Men; Against Sexism,” said he did i not want men to get the idea; that they were going to be. liberated themselves by; associating with feminists. Such men’s motives were' suspect. They might get more independent women i who made it easier for them! do je them-j iselvea. I Feminism had some nega-r

(tive effects, such as marriage ;break-ups, when men could ; not accept women who stopped being “mere appendages to them,” he said. “What it all boils down to i is a giving up of power and I control." Mr Keane said. “No ; privileged class has . ever ; given up power without a (struggle.” Women probably had to (push their rightful roles in,dependently of men—“at this istage, anyway. Women have (fought our battles long ! enough. I think they’re projbably pretty tired of it.” While women went their (way, men had to support 'them, listen and learn. Mr David Novitz said he | felt “distinctly uneasy” about coming before the women, somewhat like a white. Anglo-Saxon Protestant being asked to tell the Black Panthers what they could do for him. It could be argued that feminism made men aware of .moral issues, or that it freed men from society’s traditional] expectations. ’ i

| Now was the time for men! 'to liberate themselves “to ; avoid an inevitable sex war,” I said Mr Lloyd Evans. Men’s traditional position had been ; forced upon them by the .work ethic. “The work ethic is a social .pressure in tremendous need lof change if either men or (women are to be liberated,”; he added. As a parting guesture, he! removed his tie, which he! called “the limp phallus that hangs around the male clubmember’s neck.” He cried “Male freedom!”! jas he waved it in the air. I Mr Peter Heal, the former! (Values Party candidate for (Lyttleton, envisioned The; : Human Equality Movement i |(T.H.E.M.). In 1977, there would be a wholesale switching of jobs between the sexes. I “All kinds of doors will! open for men.” he said, “the laundry door, the play centre ;door, the supermarket door.”: He said that role-sharing; icould perhaps remove some! lof the male job strains—“ Wei I could all grow old together.”!