Not All Men?

He's basically claiming the assault tactic weapon used by feminists and using it to start a conversation around males' mental health. Co-opting the assailant's weapons is a tried and true tactic.

Marty Smiley is just another second rate feminised academic femsplaining masculinity. This framing of masculinity primarily in terms of its impact on women, fails to acknowledge that masculinity is a subjective, personal and integral core identity of each and every male, that first and foremost is owned by and lived by men. While it always exists in the context of the world surrounding each man (family and community), it is not dependent on that context for either it's existence or fundamental nature.

Apologists like Marty Smiley are unable to acknowledge or deal with masculinity with out reference to an external observer (i.e. feminism) because their understanding of masculinity is almost entirely derived from that ideology. Running definitions of masculinity through a feminist filter, reframes masculinity as something subordinate to an ideology that is biased by hatred and misandry. Thus masculinity in feminist dialogue (and for people like Smiley), is an entirely negative attribute that at best is broken, and at worst needs purging from existence.

Masculinity is about being male and its men, each man, who decides what masculinity is or is not, on a personal and subjective basis. Masculinity is not a homogenous culture. To suggest a unified culture of masculine negative behaviours is a flawed and hate based exercise only necessary when attempting to characterise maleness AS a negative behaviour. The current framing of masculinity as harmful to men is also a scam. It’s like saying “being male is harmful”. It is just a rouse to take ownership of masculinity away from men by suggesting its bad for them, by pathologising masculinity and then providing a cure! This rouse can only work if masculinity is framed in a negative filter (i.e. toxic masculinity).

Marty Smiley, proudly virtue signals that he starts relationship counselling sessions with men by requiring them to identify 50 abusive male behaviours. This focus on negative attributes related to the perpetration of abuse by males against females, reveals the third wave feminist origins of the authors ideological view of masculinity. I can only despair at the amount of harm professionals like Smiley perpetrate on their clients by insisting they deconstruct their masculinity and reconstruct a feminised subordinate masculine identity before he can start to help them with relationships.

Suicide rates for Australian males continue to rise despite increased Government spending on counselling and interventional services. As Smiley acknowledges, 6 men end their lives every day in Australia.

We now know that LifeLine Australia, one of the larger recipients of Government funding for suicide counselling in Australia, refuses to condemn, object to or refute hate speech such as “killallmen”, “kill all men and then kill them again”, “men r gross and also rapists. kill all men”, eliminate all men”, “all men are scum and must die”, “so glad another man is dead. killallmen”, and recommended that men should commit suicide, published by third wave feminist author Clementine Ford.

Now Smiley admits that the one of the key Australian family relationship counselling services (frequently referenced by the Family Court of Australia), has adopted an approach based on a feminist ideology that views masculinity through a filter in entirely negative terms.

If we allow feminised apologist to dominate the dialogue about masculinity as if they talk for all men, we will continue to see male suicide rates climb! It is way past time for men to take back masculinity.