Report on Male Discontent and its Implications for Sustainable Development Goals

1.0 Introduction: Identifying a Barrier to Social Progress

A significant trend of anger and frustration has been identified among the male population in America. This discontent, while widespread, is often inarticulate, making it difficult to pinpoint a specific cause. This phenomenon presents a considerable challenge to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to social cohesion, well-being, and equality. The current societal response often involves dismissing these feelings as illegitimate, which obstructs productive dialogue and fails to address underlying systemic issues. This report analyzes the roots of this anger through the lens of the SDGs, arguing that it stems from legitimate, gender-based grievances that have been largely ignored by mainstream social justice movements.

2.0 The Incomplete Application of Gender Equality (SDG 5)

The pursuit of SDG 5: Gender Equality has rightly focused on protecting women and girls from systemic violence and inequality. However, this report posits that the framework has been insufficiently applied to the experiences of men and boys, leading to a perceived hypocrisy that fuels male frustration.

2.1 Gaps in Current Feminist Frameworks

• Selective Protection: Efforts have concentrated on institutions that predominantly harm women, while largely ignoring institutions that brutalize men, such as military facilities, prisons, and police training academies.
• Dismissal of Male Victimhood: There is a failure to recognize that men and boys require protection from the violence of other, more powerful men within these systems.
• Invalidation of Male Anger: By labeling male anger as inherently negative without investigation, the potential for it to be a righteous response to injustice is lost, preventing its use as a catalyst for positive social change.

2.2 Towards a Holistic Vision of SDG 5

Achieving true gender equality requires acknowledging that patriarchal structures harm all genders. A comprehensive approach to SDG 5 must include fighting for the dignity and bodily autonomy of men and boys, protecting them from being socialized into roles as agents of violence.

3.0 Institutional Violence as a Threat to Peace and Justice (SDG 16)

The societal conditioning of boys into violent roles directly undermines SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. This process creates a cycle of violence that destabilizes society and corrupts the institutions intended to protect it.

3.1 The Socialization Process into Violence

1. Cultural Grooming: Boys are culturally conditioned through media, entertainment, and propaganda to view violence and military action as aspirational, powerful, and integral to masculinity. This runs counter to SDG 4: Quality Education, which aims to promote a culture of peace.
2. Institutional Recruitment: Military and police recruitment practices exploit this conditioning, channeling men into systems designed to enact state-sanctioned violence.
3. Systemic Brutalization: Within these institutions, individuals are systematically desensitized to violence, causing significant harm to their mental and physical well-being, in direct opposition to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being.
4. Perpetuation of Violence: The violence men are trained to enact abroad or in specific domestic contexts inevitably spills back into broader society, contributing to domestic abuse, community violence, and mass shootings.

3.2 The Corrosion of Just Institutions

The military-industrial complex is identified as a primary driver of this cycle. Its influence diverts public funds from essential services like healthcare and infrastructure, exacerbating inequalities (a challenge to SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities) and eroding public trust. This apparatus functions not as a just institution, but as a system that preys upon and exploits men for violent ends.

4.0 Recommendations for Aligning Social Justice with Sustainable Development

To advance the Sustainable Development Goals, social justice movements must adopt a more inclusive and consistent framework that addresses the root causes of male anger and institutional violence.

4.1 Strategic Engagement with Male Anger

• Validate and Investigate: Acknowledge that the widespread feeling of injustice among men is a valid social indicator that warrants serious investigation.
• Articulate the Source: Assist men in articulating their anger, directing it away from misplaced targets and towards the systemic forces and institutions that exploit them.
• Channel for Change: Harness this energy as a force for dismantling violent institutions, thereby advancing the goals of SDG 16.

4.2 A Categorical Imperative Against War

A foundational step towards achieving a sustainable and peaceful future is the categorical rejection of war and the systems that perpetuate it. The feminist movement and broader social justice efforts must:

• Recognize that the fight for bodily autonomy and an end to violence must include opposing the conscription and conditioning of boys for war.
• Advocate for veterans and others harmed by military systems.
• Actively campaign against the military-industrial complex and its cultural propaganda to create a world where men are not raised to be instruments of violence.

Analysis of the Article in Relation to Sustainable Development Goals

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 5: Gender Equality

  The article discusses gender from a feminist perspective, arguing that the concept of gender equality must be expanded to include the protection of men and boys. It highlights that men and boys face “grave gender-based violence” and are socialized into violent roles, issues that a comprehensive approach to gender equality should address.

• SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

  This is a central theme, as the article strongly critiques institutions that perpetuate violence. It explicitly names the “military, prisons, and police training facilities” as places that “brutalize men.” The author calls for the feminist movement to “categorically decry war, in all its forms” and to dismantle the “Military-Industrial Complex,” directly engaging with the goal of promoting peaceful societies and reforming institutions.

• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

  The article touches upon how a specific group (men and boys) is exploited by a “ruling class” for violent purposes. It also mentions the consequences of this violence for other groups, such as “faraway brown people” and “Afghani prisoners,” highlighting inequalities between and within countries that are perpetuated by militarism.

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

  The article explores the psychological distress of men, describing their “raw, visceral” anger and frustration. It argues that men have been “brutalized” and that their “body and psyche are being exploited,” connecting the societal pressure on men to their mental and emotional well-being.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 5: Gender Equality
  • Target 5.2: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres… The article argues for extending the spirit of this target to men and boys, stating that the feminist movement has “said next to nothing about the violence facing men and boys” and must fight for their “dignity and bodily autonomy.”
• SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
  • Target 16.1: Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere. The article’s core argument is about breaking the cycle of violence, from the grooming of boys for war to its manifestation in school shootings and abuse. It calls for creating a “kinder and less violent world.”
  • Target 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children. This target is directly relevant to the author’s claim that society is “raising our boys as child soldiers” and engaging in “ceaseless child grooming of the U.S. war apparatus.”
  • Target 16.a: Strengthen relevant national institutions… to prevent violence… The article critiques these institutions (military, police), arguing they are currently part of the problem. It implies a need for fundamental reform of these institutions to stop them from being places that “instill violence in men.”
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
  • Target 10.3: Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory… practices… The article identifies the societal expectation for men “to do the policing and soldiering and brutalizing” as a discriminatory practice based on gender that leads to violent outcomes for them and others.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Public expenditure on military versus social services: The article implies this is a key indicator of a society’s priorities by contrasting the “trillions of dollars” spent on “fighter jets” with the fact that “an increasing portion of Americans cannot afford health care” and that “Palestinian children starve and American children become increasingly food insecure.”
• Rates of violence within state institutions: The article identifies “military bases, prisons, and police training facilities” as sites of brutality. An implied indicator would be the prevalence of violence, abuse, and mental distress among individuals within these institutions.
• Youth military recruitment rates: The focus on “military recruitment centers” and the “grooming” of boys suggests that the number of children and young adults being recruited into military service is a direct indicator of the problem described.
• Prevalence of violent crime and mass shootings: The author links the culture of militarism to broader societal violence by asking how we can “act surprised when they shoot up a school” after raising boys to “fantasize about guns and war.” This suggests that rates of such violence are an outcome indicator.

4. Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: slate.com