Some readers have been puzzled by my use of the concept "misandry", as though it were one in everyday use. They have never heard of it, and cannot find it in their dictionaries. This in itself is an example of misandry.
For several decades now, if someone wanted to dismiss what a man was saying, a loud roar of "Misogyny!" was enough to activate the frowns of the guardians of our societal norms. Misogyny, as any Spice Girls fan will tell you, is "hatred of women". Misandry is "hatred of men": the hate that dares us to breathe its name.
It is true that the word is difficult to track down. The two-volume, 2,672-page dictionary in use in The Irish Times newsroom does not contain it. There are people who will not be surprised about this.
But although the absence of a name makes it invisible, the condition is all around us. Television advertising, for example, is deeply infected by misandry. In adverts for everything from jeans to yogurt, men are portrayed as idiots.
A man cannot wash his children's clothes without getting them mixed up with those of their friends. He cannot mix a packet of sauce without a female being present. He is also quite incapable of insuring his car - only the foresight of his female partner ensures that the vehicle is adequately covered.
Of course, we must have a sense of humour about this, mustn't we? Perhaps - were it not for the fact that these adverts occur within a culture which becomes more and more misandristic in every conceivable way. The following are a few random examples of misandry from everyday Modern Ireland.
Example one. An Irishwoman, on holiday in a foreign country, falsely accuses several young Irishmen of raping her. Had her accusations been believed, these young men, in addition to losing their reputations, positions and income, would have been sentenced to life imprisonment. Instead, the young woman receives a short jail sentence for making false accusations.
Suddenly the Irish airwaves are submerged in calls for her immediate release. Irish disc jockeys, of both sexes, inundate her gaolers with demands about her welfare, and engage in profound analysis of the justice system of this savage foreign jurisdiction. The Irish authorities demand that she be pardoned, which she is.
Example two. A young girl is missing one Saturday in the capital city. Her mother is said to be distraught. It emerges that her father, who lives elsewhere in Europe, is suspected of abducting her. The police of the entire continent are mobilised and the Irish media report every detail.
On Monday a female friend of the mother emerges to say that she has been reading the newspapers and would just like to say, in case it might be at all relevant, that the little girl has been staying with her since the previous Saturday. Herself, mother and daughter had been having a few drinks in a public house and the mother had asked her to look after the girl for a couple of days.
Did that clear it up at all? Actually, it did. The media carried not one further word on the subject.
Example three. A well-known male paedophile receives a heavy jail sentence. On a radio show the following weekend an almost equally well-known Irish feminist is asked her opinion of this man and she responds that he is "evil", "debauched", etc. Then she is asked about another running story of the week, in which a 13-year-old English boy has been seduced by the 33-year-old mother of his best friend. According to the tabloid newspapers, this "couple" had spent a week in the United States, where they engaged in "sex romps". The leading feminist replies that she sees no problem with this because the boy in question is a "fine big lad". Nobody seems to think there is anything strange or perverted about this.
There are many instances of misandry with far more serious consequences than those outlined above, and I am blue in the face writing about them. Misandry is one of the most pervasive, but invisible, afflictions of our age. For this reason, some friends and I have established an organisation dedicated to unmasking this modern scourge. We call ourselves the Anti-Misandry Agitation Network (AMAN).
I invite readers to write in with examples of misandry, which I hope to highlight here on a regular basis. We might even rise to a Misandrist of the Year Award, an annual tribute to the top man-hater in Irish public life.
A word of caution, however. AMAN is a nonsexist organisation. The only requirement for membership is hatred of man-hating.
By the same token, it should be remembered that many misandrists are male. For example, you may have noticed that, whenever people like myself put forward arguments relating to discrimination against men, we are most viciously attacked not by women but by other men, almost invariably representing some fossilised patriarchal institution and thrusting their academic credentials in front like a codpiece.
This paradox has a fairly basic explanation. Men have always, for obvious reasons, sought the approval and affection of women. In the feminist age, many men have rechannelled this need, and in doing so have adapted both their sexual tactics and their political "beliefs'.
Since the 1960s, feminism has been one of the best chat-up lines in the modern man's repertoire, but more recently this form of dishonesty has acquired a societal dimension. Under pressure to appear progressive and enlightened, men in positions of influence and power have tended to adopt misandristic attitudes because these allow them to (a) withstand competition from other males and (b) court favour with women.
It is rarely mentioned that the present "system", although ostensibly run by men, is actually run by men attempting to curry favour with women. Men without power or voices provide ready targets for such men, who regularly seek to prove their "progressiveness" by shafting other men and siding uncritically with women.
In general, for example, men who have not (yet) fallen victim to our obscene family law system have absolutely no empathy with those who have. Privileged men within the system know that the best way of protecting their own backs is to side with the misandrists. It is relatively easy for them to pretend to embrace the realities of the new world while in reality clinging for dear life to the old.
They can lambaste the culture of patriarchy for a living, while availing fully of that which they decry. The Both Ways Man (BWM) can pay lip service to the modern world and the plight of the sisterhood all day, and then go back to his cosy homestead and the bosom of his as-yet-untested nuclear family, secure in the knowledge that the little woman will have his dinner on the table and his slippers warming at the hob.