Toxic Masculinity In Jamaican Young Men, The Tip Of The Iceberg Unless We Fix Disparities…

Even as there is a con­cert­ed push to realign what they see has insti­tu­tion­al­ized dis­en­fran­chise­ment against their gen­der, women cer­tain­ly have no prob­lem when issues are slant­ed in their favor.
As moth­ers of our young men, we cer­tain­ly have not heard them speak out about the cri­sis our young men are fac­ing.
This reveals a sense of hypocrisy in women, which caus­es me to think that what women want is not par­i­ty but total con­trol.
The nations crime rate is direct­ly relat­ed to the dis­il­lu­sion­ment of our boys who have been for decades left to fend for them­selves while the fam­i­lies resources are invest­ed in the edu­ca­tion of girls.
This is not to say that there are not instances where girls are abused and mistreated. 

Jamaica is a case study in this dys­func­tion which began as a push to grant women auton­o­my and par­i­ty, not just in the work­place but across the broad­er soci­ety.
Today, despite the evi­dence that the one-sided approach is hav­ing a neg­a­tive effect on the small coun­try of 2.8 mil­lion, there is hard­ly a whim­per as the peo­ple who now hold the pow­er are the peo­ple who are ben­e­fit­ting from the dis­par­i­ty.
The University of the West Indies report­ing on stu­dent intake year over year, shows that female stu­dents admit­ted to that insti­tu­tion more than dou­bles the num­ber of male stu­dents admit­ted.
Who are these edu­cat­ed young women going to mar­ry, or is mar­riage between a man and woman soon to be tossed out with all oth­er tra­di­tion­al norms?
This is not acci­den­tal, the num­ber of all-girls high schools far out­strips that of all-boys schools. Social orga­ni­za­tions are installed and fund­ed not just by the gov­ern­ment, but by pri­vate insti­tu­tions in a kind of knee-jerk response to the sup­posed prob­lem of dis­crim­i­na­tion against women and girls.

The truth of the mat­ter is that in many cas­es in a house­hold in which there are a boy and girl, and resources are scarce, the default option is for the girl to be edu­cat­ed and the boy left to fend for him­self.
Women and girls expe­ri­enc­ing issues may go to any num­ber of places to get help, includ­ing (1) The Bureau of Gender Affairs (2) Woman Incorporated (Crisis Centre). (3) Sistren Theatre Collective (4) Women’s Centre Of Jamaica Foundation. (5) Women’s media watch. (6) Women’s Resource And Outreach Centre (WROC. And much more.

Look around you and tell me where you see a men’s cri­sis cen­ter geared toward the uplift­ment of boys and men.
There has nev­er been a sys­temic pol­i­cy to keep women dis­en­fran­chised con­trary to the fem­i­nist dog­ma being fed the pub­lic by the mouth­pieces on radio and tele­vi­sion.
Sure, Jamaica was not exempt from the tra­di­tion­al unwrit­ten under­stand­ing that men went out to work and women stayed home with the chil­dren. However, nei­ther has Jamaica been exempt from the rad­i­cal shifts which have changed that par­a­digm, not the least of which are eco­nom­ics and fem­i­nism.
As a con­se­quence, women in Jamaica has increas­ing­ly occu­pied offices of polit­i­cal and exec­u­tive pow­er since the Island was jet­ti­soned from the coat-tails of Britain.
In fact, Jamaica is one of the lead­ing nations as it relates to female empow­er­ment across the globe.
But this has not come with­out a price. Our boys have been for­got­ten in the process and the nation’s crime rate is a direct reflec­tion of that.

The nation’s attor­ney General Marlene Malahoo Forte today report­ed that up to 80% of young girls first sex­u­al inter­ac­tion is forced,(meaning they were raped).
The attor­ney gen­er­al says the Andrew Holness led admin­is­tra­tion takes the issue of sex­u­al vio­lence seri­ous­ly and is com­mit­ted to doing all it can to ensure that the right laws and penal­ties are in place.
The Government may be best advised to look at the neglect of our young men and the lack of care being placed in their edu­ca­tion and well-being.
If we do not arrest these dis­par­i­ties, I am afraid that the lev­el of tox­ic mas­culin­i­ty being expe­ri­enced in the rapes and killings thus far, will only be the tip of the iceberg.

Mike Beckles is a for­mer Jamaican police Detective cor­po­ral, a busi­ness own­er, avid researcher, and blog­ger. 
He is a black achiev­er hon­oree, and pub­lish­er of the blog chatt​-​a​-box​.com. 
He’s also a con­trib­u­tor to sev­er­al web­sites.
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