Sex,
Lies & Feminism
by
Peter Zohrab
Chapter
9: Lies, Damned Lies & U. N. Statistics
1999
Version
1.
Introduction
Several
chapters in this book give instances of how the Feminist research industry
has exploited its control over gender research by publishing and disseminating
false and misleading statistics. This may be a combination of Feminist
incompetence, ruthless Feminist disregard for the truth and the cowardly
reluctance of many non-Feminst academics to enquire too closely into the
doings of the Feminists, in case they damaged their careers.
Another
aspect of the statistics war is that it is sometimes hard to get hold of
statistics that would support a pro-male view of some aspect of social
life, because the feminised bureaucracies in Western countries don't see
the need to collect or publish statistics on the issues concerned. For
example, I once wrote to the New Zealand Police asking for details of their
prosecutions for false complaints, according to the category of crime involved.
They replied that they didn't keep such statistics, they wouldn't compile
them for me, and they wouldn't let me go through their files to compile
them myself. On another occasion, I wrote the the New Zealand Minister
for the Courts, asking for statistics on how often fathers got custody
of their children in the family Court, and I received a similarly negative
answer.
"Unfortunately,"
writes Thomas (1993, page 145),"the numbers dry up once men stop being
the bad guys."
In
fact, the situation can get worse than statistics merely not being available
-- statistics that were previously available can cease to be available!
For example, the Statistical Abstract of the United States used to publish
a breakdown by sex of perpetrators of Child maltreatment -- but some Feminist
in the US bureaucracy (who might have got her job through Affirmative Action,
for all I know) must have decided that the world didn't need to know that
most perpetrators of Child Maltreatment are female. So that statistic has
not been available for any year since 1986, when 55.9% of perpetrators
were female (Statistical Abstract of the United States 1992, Table No.
301).
2. The GDI and the GEM
From
the United Nations Women's Conferences that have taken place, and from
documents such as the United Nations Human Development Report 1995, we
can see that the Feminists are now well entrenched in the United Nations.
They are engaged in exporting the Western notion of Feminsm to the rest
of the world, using the United Nations as one of their prime tools.
The
above document contains a chapter which is:
"concerned
with the measurement of gender inequality by simple composite indices based
on readily available data " (page 73).
The
two measures that it proposes are the GDI (Gender-related Developement
Index) and the GEM ( Gender Empowerment Measure). The GDI is purely an
adaptation of an already existing United Nations index -- the HDI (Human
Development Index). The HDI gives a country a relative development ranking
according to the income, life expectancy, and adult literacy of their citizens,
and according to the numbers of people enrolled in their education system.
Similarly,
the GDI gives countries a relative feminisation ranking according to the
relative male and female income, life expectancy, adult literacy, and numbers
enrolled in educational institutions. Of course, "life expectancy" is the
odd man out here, and it would never have appeared in a Feminist index
of this sort in the normal course of events. But it is obvious that the
Feminists had to win political battles, initially, to get any sort of Feminist
index adopted by the United Nations at all -- so the obvious tactic was
to get in on the back of an existing US index.
However,
that was only the thin edge of the wedge. At least they were in! Then they
had to deal with the propaganda problem of the life-expectancy issue --
since, obviously, women outlive men in all but about two countries in the
world. Even that was not good enough for Hilary Clinton, however, so she
made a speech deploring the low female life expectancy in those two South
Asian countries, when she visited them!
The
UN Feminists dealt with the life expectancy problem in two ways:
First
they did a statistical conjuring trick: They set an artificial maximum
life-expectancy for women that was five years greater than men's, and an
equally artificial minimum life-expectancy for women that was likewise
five years greater than men's, -- and then they proceeded to "adjust" their
raw data and make their calculations and rankings on that basis!! As justification
for this cunning ploy, they cited only two, relatively old works by female
writers (Holden 1987 and Waldron 1983). However, Vallin (1995) states:
"For
many years now, most authors have agreed that social role differences between
men and women and related factors are the main cause of their inequality
in the face of death" (page 178).
Feminism
is about changing the social roles of women and men. If the difference
between men's and women's life expectancies is indeed the result of their
different social roles, then that needs to be allowed to emerge from the
raw statistics, without any devious, unprofessional, Feminist gerrymandering
of any sort.
Then
the Feminists developed their GEM -- an index which was totally new, and
unpolluted by any inconvenient factors such as life-expectancy. This measure
compares men and women according to the number of seats held by them in
parliament, their proportions in the administrative/managerial and professional/technical
employment categories, and their relative incomes.
3.
Conclusion
All
this is dishonest and one-sided. If Masculists had been invited to participate
in this process, we would have had something to say on issues such as life-expectancy,
false accusations, suicide rates, imprisonment rates, conviction rates,
military conscription, death rates in wartime, health spending, capital
assets, circumcision, choice for men, child custody, Ministries of Men's
Affairs, university Departments of Men's Studies, and so on.
In
France, for example[1], men commit suicide three time as often as do women,
and male suicides have increased by 35% since 1974, whereas the female
suicide rate has remained static over that period. There have to be reasons
for these sorts of statistics. Men are not committing suicide in greater
numbers than women because they run Society for their own benefit and oppress
women! If men were running Society for their own benefit and oppressing
women, then it would be women who would be committing suicide more and
dying at a relatively young age!
2002
Version
CHAPTER
4
LIES,
DAMNED LIES, AND U.N. STATISTICS
Introduction
The
chapter on the Media University Complex, among others, provides specific
instances of how the Feminist research industry exploits its control over
gender research by publishing and disseminating false and misleading statistics.
Statistics which arise out of an ironic combination of Feminist incompetence,
their ruthless disregard for the truth and the cowardly reluctance of many
non-Feminist academics to inquire too closely lest they damage their careers.
The
only way to counter their propaganda machine is with courage, persistence,
unbiased studies and accurate statistics. Neutralizing the bad with the
good. There are many who have attempted precisely that. But then comes
the hard part – getting the truth past the Feminist-dominated bureaucrats,
booksellers and publishers who suppress or ignore virtually any data that
do not support the Feminist view. For example, I once wrote to the New
Zealand Police asking for details of their prosecutions for false complaints
by category of crime involved. They replied they didn't keep such statistics
and wouldn't compile them for me, nor would they let me go through their
files to compile them myself
On
another occasion, I wrote the New Zealand Minister for the Courts asking
for statistics on how often fathers got custody of their children in the
family court, and I received a similarly negative answer. This negative
approach to keeping statistics that are relevant to the needs of men and
fathers was echoed in the following email I received from Robyn Munro,
Planning & Information Unit, National Office, New Zealand Ministry
of Courts, on November 12th, 1999:
In
response to your phone call earlier today: Unfortunately we are unable
to provide you with detailed information on Custody/Access outcomes from
the Family Courts. We hold numbers of cases processed but no information
on the actual outcomes of those cases. There were 9068 Custody/Access cases
processed nationally in the last financial year. I'm sorry I cannot help
further. The information you seek is not collected on a national basis
& I do not know whether individual courts keep such records either.
In
Britain, the situation is similar:
"Unfortunately,
the numbers dry up once men stop being the bad guys. (Thomas 1993, page
145)."
This
goes beyond data being merely unavailable – statistics previously published
are removed from the record! The Statistical Abstract of the United States,
for example, used to publish a breakdown by sex of perpetrators of child
abuse. Once men's rights advocates publicised this, however, a government
bureaucrat decided the world didn't need to know that most perpetrators
of child abuse are female. So 1992 was the last year they were published.
(Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1992, Table No. 301).
The GDI and the GEM
From
the United Nations Women's Conferences to documents such as the United
Nations Human Development Report 1995, we can see the Feminists are now
well entrenched in the United Nations. Worse, they are using the UN to
export western Feminism to the rest of the world.
On
page 73 of the 1995 Human Development Report, for example, in a chapter
focusing on "the measurement of gender inequality by simple composite indices
based on readily available data," they propose two measures: the GDI (Gender-related
Development Index) and the GEM (Gender Empowerment Measure). The GDI is
purely an adaptation of an already existing United Nations index – the
HDI (Human Development Index). The HDI gives a country a relative development
ranking according to the income, life expectancy, and adult literacy of
their citizens, and according to the numbers of people enrolled in their
education system.
Similarly,
the GDI gives countries a feminisation ranking according to the relative
male and female income, life expectancy, adult literacy, and numbers enrolled
in educational institutions. Of course, "life expectancy" is the odd man
out here, and ordinarily Feminists would never allow it in one of their
indexes. But to get the GDI accepted they had to compromise.
They
had to deal with the propaganda problem of the life-expectancy issue, however,
since women outlive men in all but about two countries in the world. But
at least they were in! To draw attention away from the life expectancy
issue, Hillary Clinton made a speech deploring the lower-than-men life
expectancy of women in the two South Asian countries when she visited them.
That set the stage for what they had planned, next.
First
the UN Feminists did a statistical conjuring trick: They set an artificial
maximum life-expectancy for women that was five years greater than men's,
and an equally artificial minimum life-expectancy for women that was likewise
five years greater than men's, then proceeded to "adjust" their raw data
and make their calculations and rankings on that basis. But aren't the
differences relevant? Should they be hidden by such sleight of hand? As
justification for this cunning ploy, they state:
"There
is indeed strong evidence that the maximum potential life expectancy for
women is greater than that for men – given similar care, including health
care and nutritional opportunities."
They
cite two relatively old works by female writers (Holden 1987 and Waldron
1983) in this connection. On the same page, they go on to state:
"Women's
higher potential life expectancy is anticipated in demographic projection
as well. For the year 2050, for example, life expectancy in industrial
countries is projected at 87.5 years for women and 82.5 years for men...."
This
demonstrates how women don't have to be competent to hold down a job in
a politically correct environment. It is not people's potential life expectancy
that is anticipated by demographic projections, but their actual life expectancy;
after all, social factors such as health care have played their part! If
the aim is to predict the actual course of events as accurately as humanly
possible, no demographer would be stupid enough to make projections based
on potentials.
Moreover,
Vallin (1995) takes a contrary view as to the causes of the difference
between men's and women's actual life-expectancy:
"For
many years now, most authors have agreed that social role differences between
men and women and related factors are the main cause of their inequality
in the face of death. (page 178)."
If
the difference between men's and women's life expectancies is indeed the
result of their different social roles, then the Feminists should not hide
the fact by tampering with the figures. There are some theories (see Kirkwood,
1999) that women live longer than men because of society's need to assure
the primary caregiver lives long enough to see her children through to
maturity, but this is purely speculative. Particularly as until the relatively
recent development of hygienic practices at the turn of the 20th century,
women died younger than men and the constant parent was the father.
Next,
the UN Feminists developed their Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) – a completely
new index unpolluted by any inconvenient facts relating to life-expectancy.
This measure compares men and women according to:
1. |
the
number of seats held by them in parliament; |
2. |
their
proportions in the administrative/managerial and professional/technical
employment categories; and |
3. |
their
relative incomes. |
This
index is arbitrary, politically motivated and aimed purely at demonstrating
that women are "oppressed," and therefore deserving of sympathy and targeted
political action and funding. To say GEM is biased would be an understatement.
Conclusion
The
Men's/Fathers' Movement would do well to propose their own GEI (Gender
Empowerment Index), which would compare men and women according to:
1. |
their
proportion in the national electorate;
|
2. |
their
proportions in the mass media news and current affairs production, editorial,
and journalistic employment areas;
|
3. |
their
life-expectancy;
|
4. |
their
proportions as recipients of sole custody rights on separation and divorce;
|
5. |
the
proportion of health and welfare spending that they benefit from (including
single-parent benefits, pensions, research, publicity, prevention and treatment
relating to sex-specific diseases, and visits to General Practitioners);
|
6. |
their
proportions in death-rates by suicide;
|
7. |
their
proportions in the bureaucracy;
|
8. |
their
proportions in the prison population;
|
9. |
their
proportions in wartime casualties;
|
10. |
their
proportions in conscripted armies;
|
11. |
their
power to determine whether or not their child is aborted;
|
12. |
male
and female circumcision rates;
|
13. |
numbers
of academic Men's Studies and Women's Studies departments;
|
14. |
presence
or absence of Ministries of Men's Affairs and Women's Affairs.
|
Consider
France, where men commit suicide three time as often as do women, and male
suicides have increased by 35% since 1974 while the female suicide rate
has remained static over that period.1 Men are not committing suicide in
greater numbers than women because they run society for their own benefit
and oppress women! If that were the case, women would be committing suicide
more and dying at a relatively younger age.
The
Feminist research industry has exploited its virtual monopoly of gender
research by publishing and disseminating statistics tailored to its own
political goals. It is hard to get hold of statistics that support pro-male
views because the Feminist-dominated bureaucracies in western countries
see no need to collect or publish statistics on such issues. Additionally,
the Feminist-dominated universities are afraid to research such topics
– indeed, university ethics committees often act as filters to prevent
pro-male research.
It's
an information war and the Men's/Fathers' movement must see knowledge and
data as weapons of mass instruction. We must, therefore, mount siege against
their lies, bomb the media with salvo upon salvo of facts until their ears
ring with the truth, and storm the arsenals where these weapons are stored
– the universities and government bureaucracies. No more lies, no more
half-truths, no more witchhunts.
 |
Last
Update: 28 December 2004
|
 |
©Peter Zohrab |