This was one of around 70 presentations or interviews filmed for the (online) seventh International Conference on Men's Issues, 2021 (ICMI21) http://icmi2021.icmi.info/speakers. Almost all were followed by live Q&As and will be published in the same order as they were published during the online conference (held over 13-19 December 2021) but over 14-20 February, 2022. The website for the 2022 conference (17-20 November) is http://icmi2022.icmi.info. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QUGuqYb3Sk

Gerry, an Irishman, studied telecommunications when telephones lived in a box on a street corner. So keeping up with the pace of change in technology and society kept him fully occupied throughout his career in the public and private sectors. His work took him to the Balkans conflict where he met his wife, and where he has settled in his retirement. The luxury of having more time has allowed him to pursue a fascination with the narratives of feminism, which are contrary to his own observations. In search of answers to some of these narratives he proposes a counter-argument based on the intersection of vested interests in the consumer society, and the position women occupy there. He will explain how female attention-seeking behaviour has moved beyond childish affectation and adult dysfunction. Even beyond the spectacle of sexualization, evolving into a strategy for gaming the complex systems, relationships and markets that converge to make up modern society. He argues that this behaviour has become a cultural phenomenon in which women enjoy the benefits of privilege. Privilege that comes at a high cost to them, and to the men who want to love them. [For a fuller profile, check out the speakers page https://icmi2020.icmi.info/?page_id=27.] This video is one of 120 videos published for the sixth International Conference on Men's Issues (2020) http://icmi2020.icmi.info, a conference originally planned for Sydney, Australia, but later turned into a virtual conference due to Covid-19. From #metoo to the American Psychological Association’s guidelines pathologizing “masculinity” as harmful, to Gillette’s razor adverts blaming all men for the actions of a damaged few, ideologically motivated groups have used unchallenged narratives of female victimhood to promote damaging stereotypes about men and boys, masculinity and men’s relationships to each other. More than ever before, recognition of men’s issues is needed. Men and boys deserve compassion, they deserve consideration for their unique needs, and they deserve our support. Men and boys also deserve respect for their unique contributions to society and an end to the promotion of unkind stereotyping of being harmful, abusive, toxic, selfish and hateful. We would not tolerate this stereotyping directed towards any other group. We are in an era of unprecedented ideological conflict. By reducing men’s ability to take a positive identity from their masculinity we are encouraging young men to pursue ever more radical ideologies to find a place to belong. In turn we are also encouraging young women to embrace an identity as society’s victims rather than its equal co-creators. The inaugural conference was held in 2014, and since 2016 the conference has been held annually: - Detroit (201 ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBTYtFC_ni8