Letter: Men at bottom of the class

Rod Beacham
Monday 25 November 1996 00:02 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir: Suzanne Moore ("Why I feel sorry for the boys", 22 November) sees as a gender problem what is still, essentially, one of class.

Over the centuries that men have run the world, a hierarchy has developed, placing those with intellectual/verbal skills at the top, those without at the bottom. This gulf has been systematically widened until for those at the lower end, intellectual/verbal skills have become such an irrelevance that in order to maintain their self-respect, they've convinced themselves that such qualities are wimpish and effeminate.

The lives of their partners, however, have remained essentially similar, whatever their place in the hierarchy. Running a home has always required a degree of verbal skill, people skill, the ability to keep the balls in the air; in short, the basic qualities of middle management.

The result, if you give any credence to intelligence tests, is that if you go into a room containing two persons of each gender, the statistical likelihood is that the most intelligent of the four will be one of the men, the least intelligent the other. So, as the need for mindless labour has diminished, and the need for skilled workers and management risen, it is not surprising that women have flooded into the middle of the market, driving virtually half the male population to the bottom of the pile.

These are the "boys" you need to feel sorry for; whose lives will be thrown away unless they can be helped to adjust to the new world order. The other 50 per cent of men are still doing perfectly nicely. When I watch The Late Review, even when it's enhanced by the presence of Ms Moore, I can't say I often find myself thinking, "What a shame the men aren't as articulate as the women."

ROD BEACHAM

Alfold, Surrey

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in