I’ve been on holidays lately and travelling around the country, staying at people’s homes. I try to stick to the above sage advice and get out of people’s homes well before three days and thus before I begin to smell. 

I’ll stay if they beg me … beg me to stay that is, not beg me to leave.

Last week, I watched the news at some people’s place in a major city.

It was very different to the regional news I’ve been used to, and so it was even more educational.

I watched the 6pm news where the news reporter was a woman, the sports reporter was a woman and the weather reporter was a woman.

Then at 6.30pm I watched a current affairs program on which the host was a woman. Then I watched the beginning of the 7pm news where the reporter was a woman. I went off and had a quick dinner with my lovely hosts and came back into the TV room to watch another current affairs program at 7.30pm where again, the host was a woman. 

Nothing had twigged in me … until a story came on about the Brisbane Tattersall’s Club, a club where membership has been open to men only for 153 years.

According to the story, the club was now being pressured to admit women.

Now I started musing; if the news at 6pm that night had have been a man reading the news, a man reading the sport and a man reading the weather, would there not have been outcries of discrimination? 

Had the following current affairs program been hosted by a man also, might the outcries become louder?

Only the following night, the same current affairs program announced that the Brisbane Tattersall’s Club had taken a new vote and now women could become members.

But this is all good, right?

Well, the following night a mate of mine rang me from the country to ask how my city house crawl was going. 

I told him about the above. I then explained that it is great that we as a society are trying to prevent misogyny, but I fear that if we are not careful, we are merely going to replace misogyny with misandry. 

He asked next what most Australians would ask: “What is misandry?”

We all know misogyny is discrimination or even contempt for women; well misandry is discrimination or even contempt for men.

People are reluctant to use the expression “old wives’ tale” now because that’s sexist, but they’ll happily call cringeworthy gags “dad jokes”. Is that not equally sexist?

Again we had the surveys and discussions this Christmas about whether Santa Claus should now be either female or gender-neutral because a male-only Santa is sexist. 

Surely our heads and hearts would be better employed addressing the now massive number of children growing up in homes this Christmas without any father at all.

Going back the Tattersall’s male only membership debate, former senator Bill O’Chee made the argument that if the Tattersall's Club was made to change its rules, and “if we say there are no male-only clubs in Brisbane, then we must also say there are no female-only clubs in Brisbane.” 

Mr O’Chee has pointed out that there are 17 all-female clubs in Brisbane.

There’s a gym near me which is for women only. I personally think it’s discrimination that I’m not allowed to work out there, given I’ve probably got more curves than most of their female-only clientele.

It’s fairly standard now that companies have gender quotas they try and fill. 

But if a man or a woman is given a job because of their gender, is that not discrimination?

Positive discrimination is still discrimination. It is naïve for us to be always on our guard against misogyny but never on our guard against misandry. 

If we replace misogyny with misandry, it is still discrimination.

Twitter: @fatherbrendanelee