Men are Screwed

I received an email AGAIN  that has been making the rounds that never fails to make want to bang some heads together.




No, Not one of those Nigerian, you have won one BILLION dollars e-mails, as a matter of fact this e-mail didn't even have a computer virus attached, it was much worse, it had a stereo typical myth included, a myth that demonizes men, reinforces the retched stereotype that MEN are the problem in society, men are bad.



The topic of the e-mail was stamping out child abuse, a very worthy cause to be sure. A cause that is very near and dear to my heart. I used to be in the child protection industry. I have had a lot of experience with abusive parents and as a consequence abused children. The repercussions of any form of abuse on a child is nothing to be dismissed, it is a far reaching experience that shadows a child's personality well into adulthood, sometimes never to be recovered from, often a repeated cycle that the next generation inherits. But I digress.



What got me so burning was the poem that was attached to the e-mail, a poem  illustrating the pain of a child in a abusive situation. The name of the poem was:



PLEASE DADDY IT HURTS.



This poem came accompanied with pictures of abused children, their injuries and of course their emotional anguish on full display. While a small part of the poem mentions the child's inability to please Mommy, The last few lines of the poem really drives the theme home by stating that the child "writing" it was only three and was beaten to death by his Daddy.



Now I used to think that my experience in the child protection industry MUST have been atypical as I found that that the worst abusers were indeed the dear sweet Mommies, it was the Mommies that were walking away from their children, the Mommies that were neglectful. Not all the Daddies were great, some were real humdingers for sure, wouldn't put a roach in their care, but more often then not it was the daddies that were stepping up to the plate, the daddies that were putting their kids worlds back together, the Daddies.

A few years back I read a study that concurred with my anecdotal experiences...dang do you think I can find a reference to it on the net to link to? No way....To the best of my recollection this was the given order of abusers.



Number One killer of children due to abuse: MOM  ( If I remember correctly this did not include all those deaths that were dropped into the postpartum depression bin.)



Number two killer of children due to abuse: Mom's new partner, be they male or female.



Number three killer of children due to abuse: Daddy's new girlfriend or wife.



Number four Killer of children due to abuse: Daddy   BTW this includes the daddies that shoot up the whole family that gets so sensationalized by the press.

(Please note at the time of the study there was insufficient data to reflect any statistical occurrences where the household was a two male gay couple.)





I just get SO tired of the myth and the way men are portrayed in today's society. It irks me to no end, hey I happen to raising a number of these heinous beasts with outie genitalia.  Somehow this sort of nonsense has got to be put away and reality needs to find a foothold.



Poor men you are so screwed.