Jobless, homeless, all this small band has is each other

Women hit harder by recession; mental health suffers:

'Women are having a tougher time with the financial crisis and are more likely to struggle to stay on top of their finances, according to a new report. Twice as many women (68%) as men (32%) sought help with their finances between January 1 and April 30, says Financial Finesse, a financial education company.'

One needs to have finances in order to seek help with managing them. What if you don't have any kind of finances to budget since you're destitute? Of course then, you wouldn't even try to get help from a financial advisement company since you couldn't even get past the lobby without being turned away or arrested. And as I said, what is there to manage?

So there is also this concern about mental health. Yes, it is stressful to be making less than you were last year at this time (I know, since this is true for me), and of course it is much worse if you are entirely unemployed. But if at least you have a roof over your head and some food to eat, you are much better off than being homeless. (Bear in mind one of the men in this story has to live on the street since he must take what little he makes and give it to the government, or else get thrown in jail.) Just because one cannot can't afford Starbucks every day or a new piece of nice clothing every week doesn't mean the sky is falling.

Hey, but if you are female, there are many sources of gender-specific public help since gov't officials are very sympathetic with your plight. If not? Too bad.

I have heard "A man's rights end where a woman's feelings begin." Indeed, the government is more concerned about how good a mood women are in during these hard times than whether or not thousands of decent men have become homeless street-dwellers.

The information about how hard homeless men have it is all around us. There is plenty of publicly-available evidence that there is a lot of hardship that these men have to suffer. But women don't care (based on their behavior in the real world, this is not a political issue, this is not something they even admit). There is nothing noteworthy to women about the fact that men make up the vast majority of the homeless. If the disadvantaged and downtrodden are men, the sympathy card doesn't play with them. Men suffer all the time (who is expected to die in wars after all?).

So I suggest that we MRAs abandon the sympathy approach. I suggest that we get a bit more aggressive, and potentially threatening to women. Who's writing articles about what these men might do if they don't get enough to eat? Who's writing about how women might be hurt if we continue to ignore and marginalize these men? Let's make it about the impact on women, because after all, that's what Feminism is all about - women only. A host of more aggressive questions come to mind, and these may be more politically influential than yet another sympathy story.

"So I suggest that we MRAs abandon the sympathy approach. I suggest that we get a bit more aggressive, and potentially threatening to women. "

That's exactly what needs to happen. MRA's are too kind to women. Most women couldn't give a shit about men, husband, brother or father it doesn't matter. They come first, always. It is a rare woman that can be fair and care about how a man feels about anything. The reality is women, and the men in power that pander to them, aren't going to do anything for us, particulary if we are passive. In fact that's what they want us to be passive. MRA's need to start seeing what most women really are. Men's situation in society is going to sink further and further on all fronts if we don't make a stand. And that will require, for the most part, direct, aggressive action.

These three hapless guys obviously lord it over society and oppress women, exercising their male privilege.

btw I don't know how Farrell gets "85% of street homeless are men." I distributed food to the homeless for 2 years, and I'd say it's more like 94-96%.

-ax

manonthestreet

Yes Broadsword I expect there are quite a few men who would like the opportunity to put the boot in to women. I for one would not hesitate to inflict whatever force I could on the female posterior whenever it is presented.

What types of aggressive action would work? Perhaps a strike of male dominated infrastructure like garbage trucks?