Sir, - John Waters (January 28th), in his reaction to Noirin Byrne's comments on the trend of women choosing to rear children alone, is of course as entitled as anyone else to disagree publicly with the sentiments expressed. But his article exemplified precisely the reactive nature of so much of men's writing about gender related issues.
The big problem here does not, so much surround what women like N6irin Byrne say, but the huge void that exists in relation to what men typically don't talk. about. It is high time that men stopped simply blaming hose women commentators who contribute so richly to our public life, and started genuinely to articulate men's experiences and expectations of ourselves and other men on issues such as parenting, marriage and relationships, violence, and so on. Then, and only then, can the kind of proper debate that is so urgently needed on these matters truly begin. - Yours, etc.,
Senior lecturer, Department of Applied
Social Studies,
University College Cork.