Sir, - Rev Peter O'Callaghan (January 19th), responding to an article on male suicide by John Waters, suggests that men are abusing women by committing suicide. Does the same apply to women who commit suicide? He writes about the women who are left behind, whom he describes as the "real victims of male suicide in our patriarchial society". Does it occur to him that those left behind can also include fathers, sons and brothers, who equally have to carry "the burden of shame, guilt and stigma in the wake of male [and female] suicides". To acknowledge this reality would, of course, involve challenging the nonsensical feminist doctrine that all men (and only men) are villains and all women (and only women) are victims.
The comparative rates of suicide among men and women is an indication of the way our society treats men and women. Men's lives and men's well-being are valued less than women's. For example, considerably greater resources are devoted to women's health (e.g. breast-cancer screening) than to men's, even though men die younger. More men die from prostate cancer than women from breast cancer. Men are effectively now second-class citizens and this is due largely to the power of the feminist movement which has moved beyond equality to supremacy.
It is the feminist supremacists who dictate social policy in this country. As a result we have a family law system which insulates women from all the pain, suffering and disruption involved in marriage breakdown by imposing all the pain and suffering on men. If we ever hope to deal with these problems we will have to find the courage to face up to these truths in an honest analysis. Unfortunately, the faminist supremacists dictate that all analysis of social problems must support feminist "victim power" by always portraying women as victims and men as villains. -Yours, etc.,
Pineview Grove, Tallaght, Dublin 24.