This morning CNN posted a brief article about an explosion in a coal mine in Turkey.
There’s something wrong with the article. Can you find it?
Go ahead. Here’s the link:
25 killed, dozens trapped by explosion in Turkey coal mine | CNN
I’ll wait.
OK, now that you’ve read the article (you DID read it, didn’t you?), can you tell me what’s wrong with it?
Here are some hints:
- “has killed at least 28 people” (changed to 40 in an update)
- “video footage from the scene showing miners”
- “There were 110 people in the mine”
- “Turkey witnessed its deadliest ever coal mining disaster in 2014, when 301 people died…”
Could you find what’s wrong with the article?
No?
OK, here’s one final hint:
What was the sex of the miners killed in the explosion?
It’s a damn certainty that those killed were ALL MEN!
This is but one of a limitless number of examples of what is known as the “gender empathy gap”. You, like most people, have almost certainly never heard of it.
Even though it’s literally been right in front of us all this time.
The empathy gap is “… the striking and disturbing indifference of our culture to the suffering of men and boys in stark contrast to our evident concern for the suffering of girls and women.” [From a video clip of anti-feminist Janice Fiamengo talking about the empathy gap, starting at about 6:25]
The empathy gap is why thousands of articles just like CNN’s focus only on women, completely oblivious to men’s far greater suffering, despite easily obtainable facts.
Males:
· live six years less than women
· suffer 94% of workplace deaths
· are 80% of the homeless
· are 80% of deaths by suicide
· are 76% of homicide victims
· are more likely than women to be charged with crimes, receive 63% longer sentences on average, while women are twice as likely to avoid incarceration if convicted [from Estimating Gender Disparities in Federal Criminal Cases]
· form the only group who, via the Forced Labour Convention of 1930, is still subject to a type of slavery (aka “military conscription” — the law exempts “able-bodied males between ages 18 and 45 from the ban on slavery and forced labor”)
· finally, males are at least 50% of the victims of domestic violence yet are nearly 100% ineligible from receiving assistance from taxpayer-funded DV shelters. If you don’t believe that women perpetuate at least 50% of DV, please read this law review article (PDF), written by a woman.
Despite these well-documented male disadvantages, feminists have convinced many that men instead have “male privilege”. If you believe that men are privileged, please view this video.
An example of the empathy gap is the way that mainstream news sources report on the injury or death of males versus that of females. When men are injured or killed, they are almost always referred to as “workers”, “soldiers” or even “people”. When women are injured or killed, they are usually referred to as “female” or “women”, and their gender becomes central to the story.
The most glaring example of the empathy gap in the media is when a few years ago the Boko Haram terrorist group kidnapped more than 200 girls. There was international condemnation and a global “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign started. First Lady Michelle Obama was photographed holding a “#BringBackOurGirls” sign.
But there was scarcely a trickle of media attention when Boko Haram killed hundreds of boys — many burned alive — months before the girls’ kidnapping. Please view this video about the shameful neglect of these boys’ deaths — because they were male.
So when women are injured or killed, the media says so; when men are injured or killed, the media minimizes their suffering by not mentioning their gender.
So I forget… WHICH sex is “oppressed”?
Why isn’t there a “Title IX for Coal Mines”?
For other articles that show What’s Wrong with This?
Here’s the original CNN article in case it is removed from the CNN website in the future:
An explosion inside a coal mine in northern Turkey has killed at least 28 people and trapped dozens of others beneath the rubble of the blast, officials said on Saturday.
The explosion took place in the Black Sea town of Amasra in Bartin province on Friday.
“The number of casualties due to the explosion in Bartin has reached 28. Everything necessary for the treatment of 11 patients, six in Istanbul and five in Bartin, is being done,” Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on his official Twitter account.
Rescuers are working through the night as the death toll rises, with video footage from the scene showing miners emerging blackened and bleary-eyed.
There were 110 people in the mine at the time of the explosion, said Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who traveled to Amasra to coordinate the search and rescue operation.
Officials have not yet determined the cause of the explosion.
“We are doing our best to ensure that the injured recover as soon as possible,” Koca told reporters.
“I wish God’s mercy on each of them.”
Turkey witnessed its deadliest ever coal mining disaster in 2014, when 301 people died after a blast in the western town of Soma.
The disaster fueled public anger and discontent towards the government’s response to the tragedy.
By Stephen Bond on October 15, 2022.
Exported from Medium on February 28, 2023.