I see some truth in your post . . . we ALL DO see events, people, the World differently. That doesn't make those differing viewpoints any less valid. I AM NOT unique in my experiences --- I see stories like those I have decribed in the news all the time. Maybe you don't see them on the page because you aren't interested in those issues . . . but I see them because I look. I talk to men (no, not just whiny ones) and they can acknowledge the ways that they are mistreated because they are male, but really only do this because I asked. To others, they probably don't talk of it (as I usually don't, believe it or not) because they know that most people don't care how they are treated. We have all (during the past 30 years) been enculturated to accept and repeat the ways that women have been mistreated . . . . but a man who has been poorly treated, and has the gall to complain about it . . that man is gonna get trashed . . . cause "we all know" the red carpet is laid out for men (in U.S. anyway) and no "real man" has ever been mistreated. Right!
John, you are obviously a very intelligent and educated person. And, you enjoy talking of science and such. You also like "objectivity." But, what IS objective? Certainly not academia and science! Except for mathematical equations that always produce the same results no matter how often they are replicated, most of what we think we know is educated conjecture and supposition. Most of time, research findings conflict with those of other such studies. In the "Conclusions" section of a research article, the authors state that there are many confounding variables that cannot (or were not) controlled, such that they might render the authors' tentative conclusions useless. Always, "more study is needed" (perhaps because their life-blood is continued research, and they want those research dollars to keep flowing). Very seldom have I seen definitive conclusions rendered in research without many disclaimers and/or the study being roundly criticized by the research community. So, what is objectivity? Is it what a given researcher HOPES to find? How is that any more valid than the experiences of a group of people who say "this is true"? I don't think it is.