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Screens Wednesday 23 November, 11.25pm

Has the feminist movement gone too far? Girls today grow up knowing they can do anything, but what about their poor old brothers?

Save the Males seeks to redress what many see as an imbalance. This half-hour documentary explores the claims of men's rights groups (also known as masculists) that New Zealand has slowly become an anti-male state and that we need a men's movement to stand up for the rights of the Kiwi bloke.

Championing the rights of the humble Kiwi male are some of the leaders of the masculist community, including Kerry Bevan from the Men's Affairs Group, Peter Zohrab, author of Sex, Lies and Feminism, Mensline counsellor Mark Bradman and Union of Fathers president Jim Bagnall.

Some of the key areas of concern include inequality in the justice system, with laws that discriminate between the sexes and the fact that men receive more jail time than women. They also see an apparent neglect of men's health, with an under-funding of prostate cancer research and a lack of male-specific healthcare despite over-representation in negative statistics.

Save the Males also outlines what masculists see as an under-appreciation and legislative bias against fatherhood, with men not taken seriously as primary caregivers or given a fair go in the Family Court. Overseas, we've seen these disenfranchised fathers dress in spandex costumes and unfurl banners promoting the cause from the walls of Buckingham Palace.

Even the media and popular culture get a raking over the coals, as they're seen to make men look stupid. It's seen as okay to objectify men, but the same treatment of women would cause an outcry.

Does society's male bashing start early? The masculists question distressing trends in boys' education, such as a lack of male teachers and underperformance of boys in major tests. There's also the question of the glaring lack of a Ministry of Men's Affairs, even though there's a well-resourced ministry for women.

The masculist men talk on-camera about their views, which are also illustrated through off-beat graphics and the antics of the programme's superhero characters, rather unnervingly titled ManMan and BoyBoy.

Help men reclaim the night by watching Save the Males at 11.30pm on TV2.

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