BBC Set to Rerun The War Against Men

December 18, 2002

But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is? ... It's the little differences. A lotta the same shit we got here, they got there, but there they're a little bit different.

--- Vincent Vega (John Travolta's character) in Pulp Fiction

STOCKHOLM - The other day I was flipping through channels on a break. For a few seconds I was sure that I was looking at the popular daytime talk show Ricki Lake. The colors behind the stage were familiar as well as the little box in the lower left explaining the day's issue. A somewhat plump (sorry, Ricki) woman with short dark hair, wearing a familiar brown dress was leading the program, holding a microphone and cards in a way so familiar to Ricki Lake fans. But something was a little different. No one was speaking English. It wasn't the Ricki Lake show. It was Hannah, a Swedish copy.

Meanwhile, Danish television has unleashed its most recent Survivor spin-off. Twenty-four Santas are competing to keep their red suits on until Christmas. I kid you not. Santa is fake and it's prime time. The winner gets a million euros. Good boys and girls get nothing. I think the Danes have been ticked ever since it was decided that Santa Claus lives in northern Finland. An important question in this part of the world.

It can now be said in defense of Scandinavians that their copy of US television culture is up to date. The same cannot be said of the BBC. Once upon a time, the best of Europe was associated with old things; old castles, the history of civilization, classic philosophy and music. BBC broadcasts provided a window on that world and important current events, played a central role in modern democracy, and displayed an aptitude for innovative entertainment as well. I'm still a Dr. Who fan.

But recently, the BBC has been traded tradition for what Americans would see as merely passé. They hopped in their TARDIS (combination time machine and space ship) and began producing a cheap knock-off of the 1980s and 90s war against fathers; and it makes Hannah and a couple dozen survivalist Santas look like high culture.

Last Thursday I watched an episode of a program called Australia Direct. Journalist Michael Peschardt was providing a probing look into mysterious foreign social attitudes in Sydney. The former third-world British colony seemed to be having some difficulty catching up with the modern world. OK, that's a bit sarcastic, but Peschardt's presentation was reminiscent of the an earlier era of British conquest of uncivilized continents.

The twist in Peschardt's presentation was his reliance on what Americans would plainly see as a mix of 1980s feminism and the early 1990s media war against men, especially fathers. Featured in the program were a group of men protesting against Australian family courts. Problems in Australian family courts have been expounded upon in Australian newspapers. Any investigative journalist in the world can uncover solid reasons for men to protest. To Peschardt, the protesters merely appeared as "sad and angry middle-aged men hanging onto outdated ideas."

"If we are sad," said one protester, "what does that say about the family courts? If we are angry, what does that say about the family courts?" His answer was not aired. Instead, a woman responded, declaring the Australian family court system completely and entirely "unbiased" in all respects. (First in the world apparently.) Michael Peschardt then launched a bald-faced effort to associate the attitudes of fathers protesting well-documented problems in family courts with those of the terrorists responsible for the Bali bombing. (He really did!)

The upshot of the program seemed to be that women in Australia don't get enough free stuff for abandoning their husbands. The Trump standard (that every woman should benefit from the system as though she'd been married to Donald Trump) has apparently not been achieved in primitive countries that used to be part of the British Empire.

Peschardt might only have been runner-up for the Monty Python journalism award. Now for something completely different. Later I watched a program providing a probing look into mysterious foreign social attitudes in Hong Kong. The former third-world British colony seemed to be having some difficulty catching up with the modern world.

Hong Kong is new to collecting statistics on female domestic violence against men, but there is a growing awareness of the problem. This was interpreted by BBC journalism as a growing problem (brought on perhaps by severing ties with the British Empire). Instead of ignoring female domestic violence as we do in England and the United States, shelters have been set up in Hong Kong to provide men a safe haven. (Shelters for men have been set up in London by a private group. But the problem is not taken seriously by the two governments, which prefer to focus on male violence against women exclusively.)

A 70 year old man who had been beaten, scratched, intimidated, and psychologically terrorized regularly by his wife was interviewed. A diabetic, the old man was too weak to defend himself. He moved to a shelter. The feminist response came immediately. Asian culture allows men to cheat on their wives she explained. Women have been brought to the point where they won't take it anymore. She apparently felt that when women beat helpless old men it should be seen as a sign of social progress.

The corrupt and sometimes violent side of feminism got its momentum, if not its start, in the USA. Corruption of the family court system in the west began in the US (its history began in 1975), and later spread to Britain, Australia, and other western democracies. The adoption of current western practices in Hong Kong may prove to be a sad irony. It has been years since the discovery in the US that our family law reforms were plagiarized from communist countries (particularly Soviet Russia). This version of "progress" in Hong Kong will mean reversion to the old ways; an abandonment of liberalization in human rights fostered and encouraged by the west.

In the US, the backlash is well underway. The myths upon which the war against fathers were based have been systematically and scientifically disproven. A compelling case proving corruption in the family courts (US and Australia) has been presented. Wherever statistics have been systematically and scientifically collected, it has been shown that men and women are basically equal as perpetrators of domestic violence.

How will the BBC version play out? Much the same as the original I suppose, only running a decade or two behind. European television on the whole? Perhaps competitors EBS and Wolf Network will introduce alternative news analysis programming; The Josh Lymbaugh Show and The McGinness Factor, or maybe Santa's Week in Review.

Roger F. Gay