Open Letter to Symantec/Norton/O2 on Censorship

It has been brought to my attention that my web site, Men Are Good, has been listed as a hate site by internet corporate giants Symantec and O2. This is a preposterous claim.

I have been working with men for many years as a mental health professional. During that time I have specialized in learning, and then teaching other mental health professionals, about the uniqueness of a man’s way of processing emotions. I have written three books on the topic and have appeared on CNN, the CBS Evening News, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and many others. I have presented workshops in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia teaching mental health professionals about men’s uniqueness. When NFL Films chose to do a documentary on the America’s National Football League and Grief, they called me in as their expert. The show ran on both ESPN and the NFL Network.

It was through this work in understanding men that I first began learning of the places where men face discrimination and hardship for simply being men. It was crystal clear that men in emotional pain were routinely ignored and expected to figure it out on their own, while women were instantly offered support and understanding by men and women alike. The emotional pain of men was a taboo subject, while a woman’s pain was a call to action for everybody. I started bringing these discrepancies to the attention of the public and found out very quickly that people simply didn’t want to hear about it. Not only was there very little interest, the media was complicit in their stories to be sure to focus on females in need and not males.

As the years went on I started seeing other areas where men faced discrimination and hardship. Places like family courts, domestic violence treatment, false accusations, health care, and many more. Again, it was clear that the public was allergic to these issues when it came to the needs of men, no matter how true they might be. They were supported by a media that stuck to the politically correct theme of women as victims in need of help and men as the problem.

Then along came the internet and suddenly there was a voice for men that came alive. Sites were popping up daily to bring awareness to the discrimination and hardship of men and boys. Now, even without the help of the media the word was getting out, no matter how much people didn’t want to hear about it.

Then along comes Norton/Symantec, and O2, who decide that those sites that are voicing the needs of men aren’t really voicing the needs of men, they are hateful, dangerous even!

We have seen this before. It’s the same turning of the head we have seen from the media for years, now it’s just a little different–and much more lethal. The free speech of humanitarian activists is being silenced by a group that is hidden from view and exercises control over the lives of others from behind a screen. No voting about this, no discussion about this, no notes sent to site owners about this, no rules that map out what can and can’t be done. No. Just a silent and invisible group that imposes their will and judgements upon millions. I will avoid drawing the obvious comparison.

I am asking you to please remove my site from this list immediately. If you choose to not do so I think it is only fair that you let me know what violations I have committed that justify classifying a humanitarian effort as hatefulness.

I would also ask that you do the same for the other men’s sites listed below that you have dubbed hateful. Either take them off the list or explain exactly why they are there.

Tom Golden, LCSW

Update: The above list Tom used is very slightly out of date because it shifts regularly. John Kimble has been doing yeoman’s work in keeping an up-to-date tally of Symantec and O2’s victims here. –DE

(Title image “Moloch of Totalitarianism” by “GBTA” and taken from Wikimedia Commons & used under Creative Commons license.)

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