Excellent video. Its something I've thought about for a long time and its something that has made me in some ways isolated from my own side of politics. As a big, tall, white male who works in an industry of authority and violence, having been involved either through work or union business around discussions of gender roles, people on my own side of politics very quickly run to a selection of assumptions about me. Happens almost every time, unless they happen to know me. (pre pandemic I was invited onto a working group to improve and deepen my health services response and protection for victims of family violence) Both of my parents have died in the last year or so, I quit work to stay with my mother in her last few months, I haven't returned to work since she died, I have no other family and I've also separated from a long term partner. I can if i want go days without talking to another person, sometimes I actually want to go days without talking to anyone, I am acutely alone. I am at the same time fairly fortunate, I have a close knit group of friends, I'm not facing financial pressures.
At the same time I'm not working which was something that gave my life structure and purpose, it also provided validation cause I was pretty ****ing good at it and widely respected through a massive public organisation. However 20 years of working in violence has me wanting to do something else with the rest of my working life, for the first time in a long time I'm questioning am I able to change? Can I actually have a second act in my professional life that i will excel in?
Now if I was not a fully formed adult and a 20 something kid, some of the ideas peddled by these men's rights personalities could be seductive, especially when my own side of politics isn't supportive to men's issues. As an example, before my parents passed away I had managed to establish myself fairly well I had already amassed a decent portfolio of assets, once their estate transfers to me I will have a considerable amount of assets, my lawyers have advised and drawn up paperwork for any prospective future partner to sign to protect those assets. I'm uncomfortable with this however its probably necessary and i realise good advice because if I enter a de facto relationship with someone after three months they have claim on half my assets, regardless of what they bring into the relationship. Now does this make me a predatory member of the patriarchy desperate to maintain financial control or somebody who is risk adverse and is worried about losing wealth that has been built by two generations?
