It really doesn't take much searching to find articles by Nina Funnel, Monica Dux, Melinda Tankard Reist, Helen Pringle
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/feminism-has-just-begun-20100926-15s9h.html
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/who-says-feminism-is-dead-20100412-s3ei.html
That portray men as being violent, only interested in their own sexual pleasure, basically as predators.

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/men-get-a-taste-of-the-sex-harassment-gauntlet-20100706-zytn.html

Very few commentators are prepared to question or challange the use of inflammatory language of these writers. Those that try are classified as being misogynistic and patriarchial oppressors.

Attempts at trying to develope counter arguements are met with disdain and at times outright personal attacks.

Anger that seems to be way out of proportion with alleged offenses.

Two rather interesting articles have appeared, the first one to do with "Why do we demonize men who are honest about their sexual needs?"

http://www.alternet.org/sex/148291/why_do_we_demonize_men_who_are_honest_about_their_sexual_needs/

The second has to do with a new book "My lie" by Meredith Maran
http://www.salon.com/books/int/2010/09/20/meredith_maran_my_lie_interview

<i>"In the years leading up to that mass panic, I was working as a feminist journalist, writing exposés of child sexual abuse, trying to convince the world that incest was more than a one-in-a-million occurrence. In the process, I convinced myself that my father had molested me. After five years of incest nightmares and incest workshops and incest therapy, I accused my father",</i>

Everyone is vulnerable to have their views, beliefs manipulated by the media, books and fictional films and particularly TV shows that follow a feminist script, by that I mean shows that contain feminist messages with in their story line.

But maybe Gretel Killen is right that it is about time to recognise 'Me' in the blame.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/time-to-recognise-the-me-in-blame-20101009-16d5p.html

But then that is the last thing that some people wish to happen."Accepting your contribution to any situation is vital not only to ensure the incident doesn't recur, but hopefully to prevent it in the first place."

James H

"Men" are deomonized for political reasons. The suffragettes had a legitimate cause, though terrorism was not the way to go about it.

But like all revolutions, 'equality' is never the real goal, "Dominance" is. It takes a while for that true objective to come to the light of day, but come it will.

Now that Women have the vote and equal pay, the poor desperate Socialists have to go to 'the next level' and further demonize men or they will cease to be relevant.. no 'cause'.

But ultimately 'men' are demonized because many deserve it, and why do they deserve it ? Because, put simply they have lost their connection to their God, and allowed 'something down lower' on their anatomy to be their 'guiding spirit' so to speak.

The correct relationship between males and females is a complementary, mutually supportive, love based one, where respect and honouring of the other is at the core.
Husbands are to love their wives "as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her"..but when men abandon this, and see women as their toys and slaves and servants.. it should be no surprise that women react rather negatively.

I don't know if men are demonized. People seem to like to read stuff that will outrage them. I know I like to read stuff that will anger me. I am bemused though that some of the 'social commentators' get so much of an opportunity to repeat the same stuff in every article and seem to get paid for repetition of the same theme rather than something new. I'd say it's possible they take the opportunity over someone with something new to say and if so that's a shame.

I wonder if it's that there is so much anti-men commentary James, or whether it's just that you feel the need to read so much anti-men commentary. I've said before a lot of these aggrieved male posters look to me like people desperately looking for approval. Just like a feminist that sees sexism everywhere, maybe you see radial feminism everywhere? Even if it is everywhere, I see many comments on these articles stridently opposing the ideas, which is probably why they are so prevalent. Advertising revenue.

The solution to your woes really is to read other stuff, which I know you do as you seem to regurgitate a lot of anti-feminist stuff. If you don't like the dissection of men in such a negative way, don't read feminist social commentary.

Having said that, it seems in this world, to the victim go the spoils. It's the nature of lobbying; Lobby lobby lobby, gimme gimme gimme, play those violins. Squeaky wheels and all that.

I agree that to question the validity and size of those violins opens up a tidal wave of frothing spittle followed by the words misogynist or cave man. So be it. What a social commentator says has no more weight than what you or I say.

Really, what you should be doing, is trying get in there and shout loud for the mens issues. Admittedly feminists have a very large PR advantage and have brand recognition in the victim stakes.

Men are in the game with child custody now, but there is so many issues they could be interested in. The glass nursery for one. I read so many articles about gender pay gaps, the glass ceiling, women's 'juggling', but why don't you ever see men leading any fight against your oft-stated maternal gatekeepers? Maybe men just lack ambition.

PPS: With the sexual assault thing, it's really a battle between the pragmatists and the idealists. Some people have the idea that there are crazy drivers and that there are plenty of people 6 feet under who had right of way. Others think they should be able to walk out onto the road at a pedestrian crossing without looking out for crazy drivers. I'm a pragmatist myself.

PS: You're blaming the victim!

The Left has been effectively taken over by Feminism, which has become the dominant ideology informing leftist policy. While there are many reasons that could be discussed, I believe that just 3 are critical. The first is that feminism has very solidly embraced the concept of sororal solidarity on "women's issues" and in the process has achieved a very powerful bloc of voters at both elections and in the party room, who can be relied upon to vote predictably - far more so than men, who are more interested in specific policies relating to their activities rather than their gender. Therefore we see men displaying bumper stickers saying "I fish and I vote", rather than "boys can do anything".

The second is that at branch level in the ALP it is traditionally women who have been the movers and shakers, simply because they were the ones with the time to do so while their husbands were out working. It is no coincidence that ALP branches are in serious trouble as women increasingly move into the paid workforce.

Third, women of the left tend to be better educated than men of the left. Many men, having achieved a professional qualification or established their own business, eschew their leftist youth, while women are addicted to the handouts that leftist policies are so often reduced to. The men who remain leftist tend to be blue collar and thus easy prey for the well-drilled products of feminist educations, unable to combat the sophistry offered.

The Right sits uneasily with feminism and its socialist justifications. While some women of the right claim to be feminists, they find it difficult to reconcile with the fundamental principles of libertarianism that inform much of the policy from that side of politics. They WANT to like it - after all, "we're all girls together", but it's not a good fit, so they offer lip-service and roll their eyes at the excesses.

IOW: men are demonised by feminists because the distorted Marxism they promote demands a class enemy. Men are not women, ergo they must be it.

Who is demonizing men? Many men see demons at the mention of anything to do with rape, sex or equal rights. Men can be honest about their sexual needs - why not - that is not the issue. The issue is one of mutual consent. How is talking about rape, demonizing men? Let's just pretend it doesn't happen - much easier on our sensibilities.

Well I've read everything now - now feminism is about dominance. It is a preposterous idea - for goodness sake feminism was a movement based on respect and equality and in the modern day there is more work to be done to include choice for men within the home or in professions once dominated by women.

This is just another poor me as victim thread - let's everyone just start taking responsibility for their own behaviour and not push guilt onto victims of sexual assault for one.

Most men and women don't blame the victim, especially if they have experienced it themsleves or one of their loved ones. Just because some men rape does not mean all men do or will. Just because some women make false accusations does not mean all women do or will.

Taking care not to put oneself in a dangerous situation is the smart thing, but in real life you are not always safe at home or walking down the street in the daytime. Unless we lock ourselves away there is a small risk but we would be stupid to take this small risk as a measure of how we live our lives. But when tragedy does occur it is not unreasonable to expect some support and compassion rather than the tendency to share guilt. It is like people are unwilling to see that men/women can sometimes behave in abhorrent ways. People deal with that realisation by diluting the behaviour and the best way to do that is by victim blaming.

Take each case on its merits rather than getting on a gender high horse. There is far too much of the 'Me Me' in this debate and not enough 'WE'.