Gender fatigue

The breast cancer advocacy group Komen Foundation continues to be experiencing decreasing participation in its breast cancer awareness and fundraising activities, mainly caused by all the hubbub that began after it initially proposed not to siphon any donations to Planned Parenthood. I think it came to great surprise to many people when they learned that some of the change they were giving away at the supermarket was going to Planned Parenthood operations—particularly since Planned Parenthood doesn’t even offer mammogram services (apparently because there’s no money in it). 

There is no point in being devious about it; despite its claims to the contrary; Planned Parenthood is still essentially an abortion mill—it’s leadership recently required all of their affiliates to offer abortion services.  I think one reason why Komen may not be receiving as much in donations is because some people believe that if they wanted to “donate” to PP, it should have been their choice. PP receives almost half its funding from government sources, and without it the “non-profit” organization would be seriously in the red, instead of being a highly profitable enterprise with a CEO making nearly a half-million a year; if it depended on other sources it would be soon out of business. With some states like Texas passing laws banning state funds going to PP, it is to be expected that the organization would try to bully its (former) cash-cow, Komen.

It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, just in case you didn’t know already, although sometimes it seems like every month is. For some of us, there a certain amount of “fatigue” has set in on the issue. The Komen/Planned Parenthood tussle revealed the extent to which gender politics has infected the issue. A 2007 study showed that breast cancer has been so politicized that 13 times as much money has been spent on its research per death than lung cancer, the most common form of cancer. While the money spent on breast cancer research has been well applied—if caught early, there is 95 percent cure rate—other cancers that have much higher mortality rates, like colon cancer, have received relatively little attention. When it seems to be all about “them” all the time, you start to wonder “What about me?”

Thus there comes a point where a certain numbness sets in—been there, done that, heard everything, what else is new. After all, half the population isn’t affected by breast cancer, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have our own problems; I’m getting on in years and I’ve had a vague discomfort in my groin region for some time now. A prostate problem? Maybe, but since I have phony “health” insurance which has no relationship with any health provider or doctor in the state, and low pay that doesn’t leave me much “insurance” against even moderate costs, it is not “practical” for me to have it check out just yet. Just because I’m a male doesn’t mean I have ready access to “advocacy” or support groups; they don’t exist, certainly not to the extent they do for women.

There is also information “fatigue” on the issue of domestic violence, which I realized after I heard on an “oldies” radio station that KIRO News was going to have yet another “special report” on domestic violence and its “silent victims.” Before I get to that topic, let me first say that this particular radio station claims to play the “greatest hits” of the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, yet how can it make such a claim that when it only plays “white” songs—and not Motown, Atlantic and Philly crossover hits? Is the station suggesting that its listeners are racists?

But back on topic. The reason why there would be “fatigue” on the domestic violence issue is that it is a problem that will never be solved if it continues to be approached the way it has been. One suspects that advocates want it to be “unsolvable” so that they can always have something to complain about. If you locked-up every male in the country, there still would be a domestic violence “problem” because women would start attacking each other. If we learned anything from the Jodie Arias trial, it should have been that males are the real silent victims. The 2011 CDC survey on intimate partner violence showed that not only do men report experiencing a similar level of domestic violence as women, but in the previous 12 months reported 25 percent higher incidence of domestic violence than women. The fact that men are always arrested during domestic violence incidents even if the woman is actually the perpetrator explains this as well as anything.

It is also likely that the “silent” victims interviewed by KIRO were probably silent because they were not only perpetrators themselves but instigators; now that they are no longer with their partners, they can speak out without fear of being contradicted. Domestic violence has always been a one-sided “discussion”; so the accused are never spoken to for their side of the story—or if they are, treated like a bad joke. But as the Arias case demonstrated, opportunity and temperament—not size—are the important factors in domestic violence. It is knowing this that makes one “fatigued” and tuned out even as it is being battered on one’s head by the media. Hypocrisy does that.