Concerning Males

A universal conscience has been nudged
to attention from its long absence of
awareness, re-awakening to the reality of
trust abused while women shrink into
their inner resources of stifling pain and
shame, speaking no ill of those inflicting
harm, retreating into the introspection of
imagining their demeanor, their very
conspicuousness led to the assaults that
wounded their psyches and violated their
bodies. From childhood predation to adult
aggression in stages graduating to sudden
psychotic acts of blatantly vicious saddism
they have been victimized, tormented
and left to nurse their wounds traumatized
and less whole than they once were and
might aspire to be. Age no deterrent nor
mental or physical detriment, the social
contract unspoken but acknowledged
leading to compliant exploitation yet
alternating with raging aggression of gross
entitlement. Swept up in revelations are
celebrated men from the popularly avuncular
to the adored cosmopolitan sophisticates.
The swamp of leering crocodiles is being
drained and it seems like a bottomless pit
with each new set of claims matched with
ongoing professional dismissals, public
acclaim transformed to rejection and firm
friendships gone awry. And then there is
the reality of no one understanding men
more fully than other men who have always
been fearful for their daughters, mothers,
wives and sisters, shuddering at the utter
sweep of this endemic malaise of society.