Diary of Mad Voter: Save the Males

It takes a lot for me to put a bumper sticker on my car. With the exception of the occasional political candidate, I haven't given into the temptation since college. That is, until this summer, when I revealed one of my most strongly held political views.

The sticker says it all, in big bold letters: "SAVE THE MALES."

Now, I don't expect this mantra to become a rallying cry in the 2008 election cycle. But I do think it's an important factor in how we consider the social arena that defines our politics.

I was inspired, in part, by the story of Mary Winkler. Winkler, a Tennessee woman, was charged with the first degree murder of her minister husband, shooting him in the back as he lay in bed and abandoning him in their home as he bled to death.

Winkler — who initially fled the scene of her crime — admitted to killing her husband but later shed responsibility by shrouding herself in a cloak of female victimhood. Somehow a jury of her peers bought it, convicting her only of voluntary manslaughter.

The heinous abuse she suffered justifying murder? According to Winkler, she and her husband had been arguing about finances and other problems. "He had really been on me lately criticizing me for things — the way I walk, I eat, everything. It was just building up to a point. I was tired of it. I guess I got to a point and snapped," she said.

Our justice system is deeply flawed when a woman with access to the full resources of a church community and a university (she was a part-time student at the time) gets away with shooting her husband in cold blood.

Mary was sentenced to just 210 days, given credit for the 5 months she had already served, and allowed to spend up to 60 days of her sentence in a mental health facility. After serving only a total of seven months behind bars, she was released from custody last week.

Compare this to the fate of Scott Peterson, a California man given the death penalty after killing his pregnant wife, Lacy. Are we so sexist that we believe that women are incapable of walking away from abuse, that they are so emotionally frail that we should accept it if they "snap"—a result that often comes with deadly consequences?

This treatment of women as intellectually and emotionally weaker beings is not the only area where we've gotten it wrong when it comes to the sexes.

Men are also seen as disposable when it comes to parenting. We're told dads don't matter. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans two years ago, politicians and newspaper reports barely touched on the fact that eight out of ten children living there were from families without fathers. Instead, we blamed the government for the poverty of these families—and ultimately, their inability to leave the city during the horrific storm.

Jessica Peck Corry is a public policy analyst with the Independence Institute in Golden, Colo.

For years, we've been trashing men in every aspect of our culture. Advertising campaigns reflect this right and left. After all, "Choosy Moms Choose Jif." Shouldn't dads be expected to have opinions on the peanut butter their children consume?

Sitcoms also reflect our societal view that men aren't worthy of our respect. Watch reruns of any of your favorite sitcoms — from the classic "Everybody Loves Raymond" to the cute "The King of Queens" — and this fact becomes very obvious very quickly. The women cast members are physically beautiful and intellectually witty, frequently nailing punch lines that almost always come at the expense of mostly pudgy and noticeably dumber male characters.

Our education system is designed to reinforce negative notions about men. Our college campuses host women's studies programs that award degrees based solely on knowledge of the white male patriarchal regime that supposedly keeps us all down.

The men I know in my lives — even the white ones — are anything but oppressive, stupid, or unloving. I was raised by a single father, my husband is an incredible father and a constant source of my admiration, and I am constantly overwhelmed by the compassionate ways of our many male friends.

For far too long, Americans have tolerated silent discrimination against men and what we're seeing today is the devastating consequences. My one-woman campaign to save the males has started with a simple bumper sticker. But it doesn't stop there. I'm not going to take it any more. Next fall, I may even - gasp - vote for a white guy.

Editor’s note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a feature on PoliticsWest.com called "Diary of a Mad Voter." The group blog, published in partnership with NewWest.Net/Politics, is intended to give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle.

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