The article lists stories of good men who are afraid to help a crying child, to be alone for a moment with a child even in an elevator, to do volunteer work involving children, or to drive a child home. On the flip side, men are confronted as probable sex offenders by strangers when alone with their own children, won’t be visited at Halloween once divorced, and reprimanded for a child sitting on their lap when they are reading.
The article implies that American society believes that all men should be considered probable sex offenders and barely tolerated alone with their own children in public. Your response? It’s “because the great majority of sexual and physical abuse, kidnapping, and murders committed against children are committed by men.”
I hope your husband knows you think he’s a probable sex offender.
I'm a woman and I know that men are getting a raw deal in today's world. The great majority of men and women are not child-abusers. Would one say my experiences are exceptional in that I have never heard of, or experienced this behaviour in my very large family of mother, father, two brothers, eight uncles, three aunts, and countless other family members?
No known perverts among neighbors and friends and we've lived her a long time.
Frankly, we'd be wretched in an all female society. You guys...we really need you! Thanks for looking out for us.
You missed the whole point of my comments.
Your arguing against statements I never made.
I know exactly what you mean. My mother-in-law, oldest sister-in-law, and oldest niece came to see us this past weekend. On Sunday afternoon, after we had lunch, there was this store our niece (she’s 16, BTW) wanted to go to, and since the rest of the ladies wanted to sit around the table and talk, they asked me if I’d take Courtney to the mall so she could get some clothes she wanted to buy.
I didn’t say a word about this, but in my mind, I was a little hesitant to do it, but I went ahead and was like “uh...OK”. Given the stigma toward men that this discussion covers, I was a bit nervous about it, but went ahead and did it anyway. Granted, we could’ve just had her go by herself, but they’re from out in the sticks in southeast Missouri, and I’m sure Courtney would’ve been nervous driving in St. Louis traffic, so I went ahead and did so (I don’t know whether I was brave or stupid to do so...we shall see).
Naturally, if my in-laws didn’t trust me or didn’t like me, I’m sure they wouldn’t have asked me to do that, but it’s nice to know they like me and trust me. Besides, they’re from a small town of fewer than 400 people where everyone knows everyone, and so to them, they must not have given something like that a second thought.
Anyways, stigma or no stigma, society needs to get it through its thick skull that probably about 99% of all men are 100% perfectly safe with your kids.