BBC - "If... women ruled the world" - Don't Blink You Might Miss The Men Talking

A part fiction, part documentary on the BBC opens with Prof. Steve Jones, author of Y: The Descent of Man. Hardly a good start to a debate about "If... women ruled the world" that has any pretensions to be fair. You can vote if a women's world would be a better place and join the phone-in....

All the drama-documentaries in the IF series are based on rigorous journalism and research, here's just a few facts about how women's roles have changed, and could continue to change in the future.

I'm tempted to say that it was researched as well as weapons of mass destruction were researched before the Iraq invasion.

Quotes include

More men who don't fit in, the more violence they'll be and to a great extent this will be directed at women.

In 2020, masculinity is becoming a condition that dare not speak it's name.

We've already seen an increase in male aggression both within the home and outside it.

Men can be fathers at 60,70, but it's frowned upon when women have babies older.

Boys are fast becoming the second sex

We get a little bit of effort to be fair. George McCauley, UK Men's Movement, is allowed to tell us that men are angry. A few shots of Spiderman on the crane at Tower Bridge and then a psychologist explains that men want equality in child rearing. Why we do we need a psychologist to speak for us? Perhaps organisations like Fathers 4 Justice have given up on the BBC being fair to men, even assuming they'd been invited. Perhaps it's sometimes that way in relationships. It's better to say nothing, than to say something that will be mis-represented. At the end of the programme the father, long excluded from the family, and not much in the programme, does something drastic. We're not told what. He says that where there is no debate, there has to be action. It might be to blow up himself or maybe the US President (apparently a woman in 2020). The TV broadcast in the show goes dead and we're left to guess what he has done.

All in all the usual kind of thing. A lot of women giving their opinions. A few men giving theirs, especially if they agree with the party line. For the most part it's a debate disguised as fiction combined with a documentary. In both parts, women's ideas get most consideration. A few dissenting ideas are allowed to call it fair.

At If... women ruled the world you can vote on "Would a women's world be a better place?" Currently 53% No

There's a phone-in on Radio FiveLive in a few minutes at 11pm BST (10pm GMT, 4pm EST). In the UK on 693 and 909 am. Listen online at Five Live. You can phone in at 0500 909 693. You can email at Email Us or via the webpage Five Live.

Here are their well researched facts. From: Women: Facts behind the fiction

All the drama-documentaries in the IF series are based on rigorous journalism and research, here's just a few facts about how women's roles have changed, and could continue to change in the future.

At A-Level girls outperform boys in 25 of 31 subjects at Grade A.
(Source: Depart of Education)

By 2010, 40% of women will go into degree level education.
(Source: The Future Foundation)

More than one in three working women now earns more than her partner.
(Source: Office of National Statistics)

One third of new businesses today are started by women.
(Source: Women's National Coalition / Future Foundation)

In 1990, one in 12 managers in Britain were women, by 2004 it's one in four and by 2020, it will be one in two.
(Source: The Future Foundation)

In 1999, four out of five women with families (79%) still do all or most of the housework.
(Source: Diagnostics social and market research, 1999)

The average age of women at the birth of their first child is 29; 2.5 years older than 25 years ago.
(Source: IPPR)

Of women born in the 1950s, 1 in 10 did not have children. Of women born in the 1960s, 1 in 5 did not have children.
(Source: IPPR)

Recent research implied a fall from over a hundred million sperm per millimetre of semen in 1940 to just 66 million sperm 50 years later. At this rate, western men will make no sperm at all by 2100.
(Source: Steve Jones, Y: The Descent of Men)

Life expectancy for women has virtually doubled in the twentieth century and forecasts suggest this could rise to 120 years or more over the next century.
(Source: Women's National Coalition/The Future Foundation)

By 2010, the proportion of single households is forecast to be 34% (7.9 million), a third of which will be women over 60.
(Source: Demos)

Between 1993 and 2000, the number of women in prison increased by 115% compared to 42% for men.
(Source: The Fawcett Society)

Comments

[michael savell]

women are smarter,better arguers and better at managing.they are not stupid enough to get themselves killed in unwinnable fights.Men are cannon fodder,brawn is out.Women live longer and are easier on the eye-quite a few advantages.We men might not like it but a gynarchy is on the way.

[Joe]

Actually the opposite when you think about it.
When people keep convincing themselves that they're superior in some small way here or there and in some other way they start to lose touch with what one really needs to succeed.

Then they don't succeed the way they hoped to,
and then they do one of two things:
- become misanthropes and and blame the universe.
- re-evaluate their approach.

Men tend to do a better job of the latter.
Women don't. But that means that we'll be stuck with the leftovers of their stridency once again.

But all decent men do their best in the interest of civilization - which, by the way, is the subtext to why manhaters hate.

allbest -

[tom martin]

men need to get over their fear of offending women. I find they often take offence to talk of men's rights; but they'd probably take offence if I was trying to placate them too. Damned if i do, damned if I don't, so I DO men's rights. Their innitial hostility is standard, but perversely, they soon get over it, often becoming curious (and i do mean sexually curious). I've always had to work at attracting women. So working for men's rights is a win/win thing.

[JoeyMars]

I find it very sexy and erroctic to let Women be in charge of everything including me! I would love to live under a society conducted by Females in charge!I think it all can work best if us guys were only concerned about helping them succeed and get to the top of things! I am very strong and masculine a man who loves to be submissive to Females! I want to be viewed as a Gals helper rather than Her leader! JoeyMars..