By Michael Cook, Editor
November
19, 2012
Is
the fourth wave of feminism going to be men`s liberation?
Scoop!
Exclusive! You read it first on MercatorNet ~ the dawn of a political movement
destined to eclipse feminism and environmentalism ~ men’s liberation. The news
comes from avant-garde German politics, the Young Greens (GrünenJugend), an offshoot of
the Alliance'90/The Greens party which has 68 seats in the Bundestag.
The story begins in November last year, when Germany’s best
goalkeeper, 32-year-old Robert Enke, threw himself under the Hamburg to Essen
express. His
grieving wife Teresa revealed that Enke had been battling depression for
six years. Although Enke’s death shocked football-mad Germans, it’s a common
enough story. A high-achieving man harbours hidden insecurities and tormenting
anxieties. They spiral out of control and explode in violence or suicide.
But this tragedy triggered the Young Greens to add a radical
plank to their already radical electoral platform ~ the need for a new
masculinity. They have issued a “Green
Men’s Manifesto” which calls for men’s liberation:
The suicide of goalkeeper Robert Enke has finally prompted a
Republic-wide debate about men’s health, about weakness, about depression,
about fear of failure… The crisis we face is a male one. The climate crisis,
the financial and economic crisis, the hunger and justice crisis: all these are
the direct result of a particularly male way of living, working and doing
business which has driven the planet to the brink of ruin.
The Green Men’s Manifesto is not just a bit of boilerplate
from German radicals. It was signed by one member of the European Parliament,
three members of the Federal Parliament and three members of state Parliaments,
along with 14 other Green politicians ~ all men. It shows that Germany’s most
avant-garde politicians sense that men’s liberation has finally reached its
tipping-point.
Feminism, they suggest, is no longer a demand from an oppressed minority, but a dominant ideology.“A woman [Angela Merkel] is chancellor. Women have better educational qualifications, can become bishops, do Rap and Hip-Hop, are more successful at soccer than their male colleagues,” says the manifesto.Women have thrown off the shackles of stereotyped gender roles. But men? They are still rattling their chains. “Gender roles are a corset that does more harm than good.”
And just as feminists did -~ or do ~ the Green Men play the
victim card. German men die six years earlier than German women. Women have
work-life balance programs, but not men. Fathers are shut out of the lives of
their children because of work, and so on.
What is going on in Germany? The young Turks of the party
which turned tree-hugging into a potent political force, which campaigned
against nuclear power, against global warming and acid rain, against NATO, and
against the war in Afghanistan, believe that feminism no longer speaks for the
underprivileged.
The “wretched of the earth” are no longer starving Africans
foraging for water in the Sahara, but Hans and Fritz who need affirmative
action programs. “We want more gender-sensitive men in ‘traditional’ female
occupations: more teachers, more primary school teachers, more social workers.”
On it goes: they want a “boys’ day” and “gender-sensitive career guidance”, and
greater attention to men’s health.
If these demands had come from disgruntled unemployed truck
drivers or bitter fathers battling for access to their children, no one would
pay the slightest attention. But the slogan for the manifesto is “green men
fight together with feminists”. The authors use the utmost tact in praising the
achievement of feminism. Indeed, they endorse the feminist critique that half
of society is oppressed because of its gender. But it’s not the conventional
gender.
Feminism was been described as the most powerful revolution
of the 20th century.
Could the Green men’s manifesto be the first glimmer of a
new politics of masculinity for the 21st? After all, it’s a pretty seductive
program:
“We want less pressure to perform, better health care, and more quality time. We don’t want to be heroes of work; we want to live. We want to share power, responsibility and duties and to tear off the corset of gender roles. We want new horizons for men in the 21st century!”
If only their wives, girlfriends and mothers will let them.
Viel Glück!
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