REALity June 2018 Ottawa, ON
Emphasis on The Girl Child Only
The UN agency UN Women, has done everything in its power to promote women and the girl child within a feminist context. The media have also done their part to portray women and girls as victims of male patriarchy, who require assistance. The Canadian federal government agency, the Status of Women has a seat at Trudeau’s cabinet table to better ensure that women, supposedly experiencing discrimination, have a voice. That is, it is argued that because women supposedly experience poverty, violence, barriers to education, employment and discrimination in political representation and health care, they must be given priority in society.
Unfortunately, the left leaning Liberals have chosen to overlook the fact that advantages and privileges for women have soared over the past years so that women often have, in reality, a dominating role in Canadian society. For example, there are three women for every two men attending universities. The majority of medical, law, dentistry, architecture and veterinary graduates are women. Over half of chartered accountant graduates are women. Most scholarships are awarded to women in preferential to men.
No one seems to notice that by giving priority to females, the boy child has been neglected and has been left to struggle as best he can to get through life without social support.
This neglect has created serious problems for boys. For example:
- According to Statistics Canada, on standardized reading tests, only 20.4% of boys score in the top 25%, compared to 31% for girls; only 31.9% of boys have overall marks of at least 80% compared with 46.3% of girls and nearly one in ten boys repeats a grade (9.9%) compared with 6.5% of girls;
- Boys are 100% more likely to be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) compared to girls;
- Boys are more likely to be the victims of violent crime;
- Boys have a suicide rate four times higher than girls;
- Boys are 5 times more likely to end up in juvenile detention.
There is an urgent need today to focus on the boy child. If a boy is neglected, or fed a diet of hate and violence, it is obvious that he will likely develop into a teenager who is misguided and confused. This makes his critical transition into positive manhood difficult. He will be more susceptible to acting out by joining gangs and becoming involved in drug trafficking and substance abuse. Guns mistakenly become a symbol of masculinity to him. His life becomes an indictment of his neglect and isolation.
Every boy deserves to grow up to become a man of honour and integrity, to accept the responsibilities of manhood, such as forming and supporting a family, as well as contributing in a vital way to the community and the nation. However, at the present time, too many boys are invisible and have been forgotten and have failed to understand healthy masculinity.
Positive Role Models
In order to grow up to reach true manhood, it is essential that boys have positive male role models, such as a father, family member, teacher, or someone else from his community. The latter can play an important part in leading boys to feel valued by society and ending their feelings of disconnection from the broader society. Boys need mature parents who are closely involved in their lives. They also need structure and encouragement in the schools. Unfortunately, even though boys win hands down in demerits and detention, horrendous student behaviour, nonetheless, is allowed to happen without serious consequences to the student. This trivializes their unacceptable behaviour.
Schools are the Problem
The primary battleground for boys is in the schools. The school system needs more direct interactive teaching of relevant content – not the teen subversive rubbish novels that are foisted on them.
Boys lead the technology revolution. They choose to play with computers, video games and the internet, and their interest is very useful in a future dominated by the internet. It creates desirable attributes, such as taking risks, being entrepreneurial, and being individualistic.
It is a fact that boys are also demonstrably more competent with new technology than girls, according to several different studies in several different countries. Boys score much higher in computer science as well as related math and other science subjects. Women are just as capable with technology, but they do not explore technology as boys do, nor at the same rate. For example, girls use the Internet just as much as boys, but they use it in different ways than boys. Girls are less apt to fix, explore, hack, take apart, or put back together, as are boys. Thus, there is a biological reason why boys learn differently than girls, according to neurological development experts. Boys, however, play with their computers and video games far too much at home.
Times have changed, and we need to adapt our times to meet the needs of the boy child. They are too valuable to be left to drift as occurs too often today.