The fact that some men have done terrible things in the past, it’s ridiculous to blame all men for those acts. It is a mass injustice to society to brand all men abusers, or any other negative trait women may have experienced with men. It seems that when men today stand up against such extremist views, those same extremists tend to cry ‘sexism’ and the brand ‘misogynist’ is soon to follow. This kills any intelligent conversation on the issue. Therefore, when society goes too far in branding all men as abusers, or the enemy, the only people that can counter that debate, is WOMEN.
Australian journalist Natalie Barr exposes the “us” against “them” mentality of modern gender relations and explains that men aren’t to blame for women’s workplace struggles.
AM I the only woman who’s not angry at men? I’m a woman and I have never felt discriminated against. There. I’ve said it.
I’m not angry at men. I can’t remember being passed over for a promotion because of a man and I have never felt undervalued because I’m a woman.
I went to a co-ed country Catholic school and the boys were my mates. Just like the girls. Maybe that’s where it started — my view that I was just as good as the opposite sex.
No one ever told me I wasn’t. And they still haven’t.
That doesn’t mean by any stretch that I’ve been positive and confident and happy every day of my life. It just means I don’t blame men for my troubles.
When I was 20 I missed out on a cadetship at the ABC, but I didn’t for a second think it was because I was a girl. I just had no bloody idea what I was doing; and they could tell.
Through the end of high school and university, I volunteered to work for free at the local TV station in Bunbury during my holidays. I couldn’t have known less about TV news or being a journalist.
Every day I was there taught me something new, gave me a little bit more confidence in myself and made me realise that I had to take a leap and start applying to every news organisation in Western Australia for a job. Work experience shaped my future and I still believe it’s one of the most productive things a kid can do.
As a result of one of those letters, a very nice person, who just happened to be a man, finally gave me a cadetship with a local Perth newspaper. The pay was $142 a week. That was for a D-grade cadet, man or woman.
I loved it, worked my way up to senior reporter (in charge of a man) and then headed to Kalgoorlie for my first TV job. I worked overseas for a few years and, of this December, I’ll have been at Channel Seven for 20 years.
For nearly half that time I was a reporter for the 6pm news. I started off doing very low profile stories, because I was a pretty inexperienced journalist.
I don’t remember the other junior male reporters being given better stories than me.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
