Men on The Strand voice their concerns about their prejudicial treatment
This year’s Strand masthead has been marred by its controversial lack of diversity. Only making up a mere 11.1 percent of the masthead, men on The Strand have felt their opinions marginalised by the privileged majority. In numerous instances, their voices and workplace rights have been shunned and ignored. In a masthead meeting on March 22, in an appalling and humiliating demand, Editor-in-Chief Shelley Yao asked Features editor, Michael Elsaesser, to not “so generously and recklessly spray” his Wild Spice 48-hrs non-stop Axe Deodorant Body Spray in light of others’ “tearing up and being unable to breathe.”
The Strand’s News Section interviewed two of the three men on The Strand to report on their story of prejudicial treatment. It should be passingly noted that the third man is the writer of this article. For protection against backlash, the two editors have been ensured anonymity and renamed “Keiran Geemond” and “Mykill Elzazer.” To ensure honesty, the following interview is uncut and uncensored.
The Strand: Describe your efforts and commitments at The Strand.
Keiran Geemond: You can not imagine how much time I commit to The Strand. Last week, I was in the office for a whole three minutes! The week before that was a whole seven! That’s an unrealistic time commitment for someone who has a whole 1.75 credits to do this semester. Shelley has told me they’ve been in there for hours at a time, but they must be exaggerating.
Mykill Elzazer: I do so, so much. Every day I have my Strand email on my computer, [even though] I only check it once in a while, but its presence on my computer is constant. Sometimes, I even show up to my office hours.
What’s the workplace environment like at The Strand?
KG: Terrible. Everyone is so nice and, as a very masculine man, I need my workplaces to be full of other toxic people who will never tell me I’ve done a good job and will hunt me for sport if I miss a deadline.
ME: Not at all progressive. See, I believe that true progress can only happen in all-male spaces. That’s because men need to listen to other men to learn about things like gender equality. That’s why I personally love hockey change rooms, because we bros can chat about what truly matters, and reach each other on a level only men can understand. All-male spaces are constantly being attacked and reduced to prioritise ‘inclusivity,’ but where are the protected spaces for men?! Alas, The Strand’s environment does nothing to protect the sanctity of men’s spaces.
As a marginalised minority, how do the others treat you at The Strand?
KG: I’m treated just the same as everyone else, which I believe is discrimination. They hate me specifically because I’m a white cishet man. Because there are fewer of us, that makes us more important, and Big Strand should support us more.
ME: Not good enough. Back in the good old days, men were revered and respected, but now, we’re just respected.
What’s their work attitude and ethic like?
ME: No one grinds as hard as they should. Everyone is all about “prioritise your health and well-being!” When are these sheeple going to wake up and realise you need to put 110 percent in all the time. The Strand needs to start a side hustle, and then add another side hustle for the side hustle. It’s all about streams of income, and no one else wants to get up and work to make more of those these days. When I walk into Strand production meetings pitching my latest crypto investment, no one jumps on board. Instead, they say “Good job, now let’s get back to the meeting” as if whatever else they were discussing is more important than an NFT of Elon Musk’s face on Mount Rushmore, where it definitely belongs.
Describe an event at The Strand where you were discriminated against and explain how you felt.
ME: I pitched that we take the Strandcast and use it to interview almost exclusively wannabe frat bros, so we can ask them questions about serious world events, or the operations of UofT (neither of which they know anything about). I feel we need to platform the real voices at Vic, but that idea was shot down by the radical feminists who think we should engage in “fruitful discussion” with “competent people.” But I know the real reason is because everyone just hates men nowadays.
KG: When I started interviewing people for [CENSORED FOR THE ANONYMITY OF THE INTERVIEWEE], I was told I wasn’t allowed to only interview men. This made me angry because as a man, I’m not not aware of any other emotions than rage. What do you mean that I, as a man, need to have my section be “diverse and show that anyone is able to do science?” Wait, cut that last sentence,
I didn’t mean to say that, they’re gonna find me—
Were you silent or silenced?
ME: reference?
KG: I was definitely silenced. The Strand
doesn’t let me write anything that I want to write, and instead, we have to publish articles that ‘contain facts.’ What if I want to write about a cool dream that I’ve had? Where is the spot for me to write about all the things I know that I’ve learned from watching YouTube Shorts? I need to explain to people how inflation is good actually, and how trickle-down economics will help everyone.
Why are men a minority at The Strand?
KG: At The Strand, we hire people based on skill and talent. We need to abolish this rule. People need to be hired on how well they can do manly things, like taking shots of straight whiskey (it needs to be straight whisky, none of that gay stuff), and how many touchdowns you can get
in a football match. It’s definitely not because men just statistically make up a smaller percentage of students at Victoria College.
ME: Men can only feel comfortable around other men because we have a… unique sense of humour that others just don’t get. We need to establish The Strand as a safe space for cishet men. We need to build the Mojo Dojo Casa House, adding a gym into the office, sports on TVs, and the sticky floors from frat houses. Men need to be prioritised in terms of hiring and pitches. That’s why I’m so grateful for this Men issue, really taking the “one small step for man” that one astronaut wanted.
What do you consider to be the root cause of this underlying hatred against men?
KG: I’m blaming the Barbie movie for showing the world for the first time that maybe women can do everything men can do. That’s why I have never seen the Barbie movie.
ME: No clue, I refuse to think about the underlying cause of social dynamics, that’s some weird gender studies class stuff. All I know is that I don’t hate women, I have friends who are women, [and] my mom is a woman. I don’t understand why men are targeted like this.
What changes should be made to tackle this discrimination?
KG: We need more men at The Strand, and in publishing and journalism in general. According to a statistic I just made up, men only make up 10 percent of the journalism industry. In my opinion, it needs to be 99 percent. We need more men!
ME: We need more men in The Strand. We haven’t had a male EIC in like, a year.
