A good article from The Spectator written by Bettina Arndt on the situation of men ages 18 to 60 being prevented from leaving Ukraine.

throwaway20210821 · 2022-03-16T19:40:07+00:00

Notable points:

One lone male voice on TikTok dared to call out the feminist silence. He attracted a wave of criticism and his video was removed. TikTok user notpoliticalspeaking

had the temerity to point out that the reported 32,000 women in the Ukrainian military weren’t all that many given that – according to his estimation – the country has 17 million women of age.Social media ran hot with dozens of articles claiming the TikTok-er was being ‘called out for his ignorance and misogyny’. People piled on with comments pointing out how many courageous women were now enlisting, showing photographs of women soldiers and grandmothers with machine guns.None of this refuted the point the TikTok-er was making. It is revealing that there has been so little intelligent commentary on the way the Ukraine crisis is exposing the glaring hypocrisy of feminism today, where feminists talk about equality but happily exploit old-fashioned chivalry, which demands only men are disposable in war.

The social media and media outrage about pointing out double standards is well highlighted.

Traditionally, this has been justified using the evolutionary argument – that is, the size of the next generation is constrained by the number of fertile females. A species can tolerate the loss of males more easily than the loss of females.No one dares point out that this reasoning hardly applies to all those forty-something single women past childbearing age that we watched scrambling to get on crowded trains leaving Ukraine.

It's about time someone call out this hypocrisy around the use of evolutionary justifications for drafting men.

There is also excellent debunking of the idea that only men should be forced into war because of "combat readiness", especially relevant in light of news that western volunteers in Ukraine are being hit by airstrikes that make it impossible for even their entire bodies to be buried:

The other arguments for offering women special protection don’t hold water anymore. The active role played by women in the military puts paid to traditional arguments about women’s lack of strength. Gender-based strength for civilian fighters is irrelevant when facing most modern weaponry.

Noting the frightening parallels to the white feather campaign and fervor for war on social media, Arndt writes that

But the main theme is a celebration of women’s courage. Social media posts are urging men to fight hard – echoes of the White Feather that women used to hand to young men in the first world war, shaming them into doing their duty to protect women. There’s a video of Ukrainian men being arrested trying to leave the country and being handed tulips, presumably a similar insult to their manhood.

Regarding the article in The Conversation about how preventing men from leaving violates their human rights, the lack of attention to the discriminatory treatment of men in that article is pointed out:

A fascinating article has just been published in The Conversation from a Newcastle law professor claiming that banning men leaving Ukraine violates their human rights. Astonishingly, there’s not one word in the entire article about the discriminatory treatment of men, even though the author raises LGBTQI+ people’s fears that they might face discrimination if captured by Russians.

Arndt also points out how transphobic policies of trans people being prevented from leaving Ukraine are rooted in discrimination against biological males:

There have also been news stories claiming trans women in Ukraine are trapped. They can’t leave the country because their passports say they are male. Naturally, there’s not one word about the fact that their bodies are actually male – and hence their leaders have naturally decided they are expendable.

The hypocrisy of the media ignoring human rights abuses of young men and boys is called out well:

Boys’ lives are worth less – or are pretty ‘worthless’ in the eyes of Western media. In Ukraine, most of the media is turning a blind eye to the fact that boys are being taught to use assault weapons – in violation of human rights law. The International Criminal Court defines the use of ‘child soldiers’ (children below the age of 15) as a war crime.

Overall despite the title (which could be used by anti-male people to incorrectly portray men as "naturally" disposable), a good article that avoids the rationalizations and downplaying of the issue that is common in much of the media articles about this topic.

Neat_Lingonberry8010 · 2022-03-16T21:40:52+00:00

‘When the barbarians are at the gate no longer is masculinity toxic’

ImplodedPotatoSalad · 2022-03-16T22:25:18+00:00

Feminists and women are all about equality and right to vote and be a nation's leader, until shit hits the fan and time of real actikn and sacrifice comes.

Then its time to run like cowards, while others are under obligations to fight. How we could ever trust a leader / voter like that, really?

SamaelET · 2022-03-16T23:54:19+00:00

The tweets featured in it are really disgusting. It is not surprising coming from Flood. But the tweets from the two women is disgusting. One is proud of 17% of the army (not combat post) being women. The other woman is Ukrainian and talks about 'equal opportunity' while men are refused the opportunity to choose.

Jamie1897 · 2022-03-17T03:29:36+00:00

It's everything in that article, and worse. Don't forget the videos of paramilitaries summarily executing young men fleeing Mariupol for the crime of being a refugee while male.

dukunt · 2022-03-16T22:32:45+00:00

A very good article...great post.

Care-BareHair3 · 2022-03-17T02:14:26+00:00

Feminists are also quiet about Western countries turning to Saudi Arabia for more oil.

Still men beheading a woman for committing adultery, is a small price to pay for cheaper stuff.

TheWritingParadox · 2022-03-17T03:57:23+00:00

This is a great article and for once I had the decency to risk alienating my friends and family by sharing it.

Thank you for posting this.

Adanu0 · 2022-03-17T11:24:19+00:00

Hilarious they paywalling the comments there. Who thought THAT was a good idea?

Banake · 2022-04-13T00:42:30+00:00

I don't agree with everything Arndt ever said, that said, this is one of the things I agree with. :-)

Title	A good article from The Spectator written by Bettina Arndt on the situation of men ages 18 to 60 being prevented from leaving Ukraine.
Author	throwaway20210821
Upvotes	103
Comments	12
Date	March 16, 2022 7:33 PM UTC (4 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/tfqw93/a_good_article_from_the_spectator_written_by/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/a-good-article-from-the-spectator-written-by.1107234 https://theredarchive.com/post/1107234

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