Irish Examiner view: Battling the manosphere takes action

Irish Examiner

05-05-2025

We should not, in the 21st century, still be reading headlines about men mistreating women. Indeed, 'mistreating' is a pale word to describe some of what is reported. Brutalising, perhaps, is better. Degrading is another.
Yet, in just the past week we saw MEP Kathleen Funchion's ex-partner jailed for coercive control, and read that violence toward women — including strangulation — is considered 'part of sex' by boys who watch pornography.
In the latter case, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, highlighted that girls feel 'hyper-sexualised' and that society feels they should 'attend to male sexual needs'.
Any reader who finds themselves agreeing with that sentiment is encouraged to look in the mirror and ask themselves why —though they will not like the answer when it comes to them. There is a reason that, some months ago, an Irish Examiner editorial urging men to do better in dealing with misogyny highlighted the Mary Wollstonecraft quote: 'Men who are inferior to their fellow men are always most anxious to establish their superiority over women.'
In Ms Funchion's case, meanwhile, the domineering abuse of Sean Tyrell was so pervasive that, she said, 'I could not sleep or eat, I could not concentrate on anything, work, or even the most basic of tasks',
It has had life-long consequences for her.
Yet we all know of cases where this sort of abuse — one struggles to think of it simply as 'behaviour' — goes unpunished, perhaps even undocumented. The manosphere — and the grifters, the rage baiters, the Andrew Tates of the world — might sell it almost as an art, a right, but it isn't.
The onus is, rightly, on men to change, and an important way to do that is by parents establishing good role models for their sons.
On these pages recently, Finian Murphy pointed to how otherwise progressive-leaning 'centrist' fathers need to get out of their comfort zones when it comes to tackling the toxic masculinity which has always been there, but which is more easily accessed than ever by its commodification and almost deification, packaged into a product that's marketed as a must-have for anybody feeling vulnerable. The centrists, he argues, need to demonstrate more through actions rather than just words or being silent in the face of hard subjects, such as those raised by the Netflix show Adolescence.
Murphy is right to say that 'a healthier masculinity offers men stronger relationships, with fuller and longer lives'.
That healthy masculinity includes, for example, demonstrating through actions that 'real strength lies in compassion, inclusion, emotional intelligence, and the courage to confront injustice'. The examples he cites include Donncha O'Callaghan, Adam Harris, and Blindboy. One could also think of the Pedro Pascals and Viggo Mortensens of the world. Perhaps you could think of more — our inbox at [e-mail] is always open, and the Irish Examiner is committed to a broad church of opinions.
Change begins with a single step. It's time for all of us with children to think about what that first step should be.
No country for young artists
For a country that prides itself on artistic endeavours — and indeed, punches far above its weight — it is sobering for Cork Opera House CEO Eibhlín M. Gleeson to note that 'a lot of our artists are leaving. There's no work for them here.'
The problems include a lack of places to perform, which seems shoddy on the part of this country given that the attendances at art and culture events in recent years have bloomed and are now as high, if not higher, than they were before the advent of covid. Let us not forget that these events don't just bring money to the organisers and performers but the pubs, hotels, and other establishments in the locality.
Like with our medical students, we seem to do a great job of training our art students to thrive in different countries, rather than creating a viable way for them to live here.
In a world where generative AI is absorbing and then soullessly regurgitating the works of an untold legion of artists, there's an opportunity here to invest a relatively small amount of money that would be repaid manyfold, both financially and socially.
Oh the humanity
You would be forgiven for thinking that the endless rollout of automation and AI — squashed into apps by companies wherever possible, whether wanted or not — was only going one way.
So it may be refreshing to see that coffee giant Starbucks has decided that investing in equipment at the expense of the human touch is not for it.
The company, which has been struggling to turn its fortunes around amid competition and reduced consumer spending, is now going to recruit more baristas instead.
There is much to be said for deploying technological solutions to real problems: Robots to fight fires in perilous situations; drones to track deforestation; improved medical equipment to treat everything you can think of.
You may be reading this on a phone or tablet, as many of our digital subscribers do, and you are welcome to do so. But you may also be reading this on paper, where after the writer and editing staff it's gone through the hands of the printers, the van drivers, the shop staff who've taken your money (still less than the price of a coffee) in a small measure of welcome human interaction.
And if we can continue to value that human touch, perhaps we'll stave off Skynet after all.
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