For the second time this year I recommend people buy a copy of North & South magazine.

Despite a number of comments from MENZ readers suggesting that the two writers displayed misandric tendencies, I reckon the latest issue confirms my view that North & South is by far the most effective publication in the country when it comes to serious investigative journalism about men’s issues.

In the May 2011 issue, the lead story by editor Virginia Larson is titled: In Praise of MEN – Forgotten male virtues: A woman’s view. She discusses the recent natural disasters, noting:

“the powerful reminder on our screens and newspaper pages of men’s willingness to run selflessly towards danger”

I found it interesting that Larson began her essay by revealing “a faint, unspoken chill of disapproval” from women friends when she told them she intended to celebrate male virtues. She notes this kind of writing is a “risky business”, and will “inevitably interpreted as anti-female or at least anti-feminist”.

After pointing out that men do nearly all the dirty and dangerous jobs in our society, she writes:

“at the risk of digging myself further into the sisterhood’s hole of no return – could this explain why men earn more than women?”

The next article of note is: The Lost Boys by Donna Chisholm.

She asks:

“After 40 years of feminism, is it time to start worrying about how the other half live and die?”

The article discusses economist Paul Callister‘s almost-completed study into New Zealand’s missing men. At a time when low-skilled men are increasingly marginalised in work and family, there is a significant gender-gap in education. In 2009, 13,300 women gained tertiary degrees, compared to only 7,450 men. Callister says:

“Society needs to figure out what it wants from gender equity. People like the Human Rights Commission and Ministry of Woman’s Affairs say, look, it’s terrible that most builders are male, we have to have campaigns to change the balance. That’s fair enough, but if you’re trying to create gender equity in the trade but you don’t care what happens in the universities, then you’ve got a real problem.”

Also well worth reading in this issue of North & South is an article by Genevieve O’Halloran: Speaking Truth to Power in which she explains why we should be afraid of the Criminal Procedure (Reform and Modernisation) Bill which is currently going through Parliament.