William Coulson, High Heaton

Dec 23 2007 by Champion Columnist, Sunday Sun

SCANNING the cards on display I see the usual themes: Dickensian street scenes, snowscapes, Nativities, Santas, Robin Redbreasts and so on. I notice a few with politically correct greetings, omitting the “C word” completely; substituting “Winterfest” and other “non-denominational alternatives”.

Yet, of all this bright array, one alone grips my attention. It stands out from the rest, despite having a routine motif: Santa Claus dressed in red. My eyes keep focusing back to it, like compasses drawn to the North pole.

Why does this particular image of Mr. Claus ring a bell in my unconscious mind? It portrays Santa in the traditional way, as a mature man, with a kindly, wise face, a blend of St. Nicholas and the Green Man of pre Christian times.

I soon realise that I’ve twigged it . . . all the other representations of Santa depict a comic character, a buffoon. Under feminism, the most common human image used for Christmas greetings is still male, but not the boy-child Jesus, or generous St Nicholas, but rather Man-as-Bungler, a fool getting stuck in the chimney, crashing his sleigh, shrinking his red pants ’cos he can’t operate a washing machine . . .

Cards are folk art that show the spirit of the age. A mocking, maligning stereotype is ousting the comforting archetype of the Wise Old Man. Publishers print few cards depicting Santa as a mature man because society has been fading out positive images of men. We are “in denial” of the type of man that old-style Father Christmas represents: complete with a combination of strength, wisdom, cheerfulness, generosity and compassion.

Adverts, too, follow this feminist trend, poking anti-male images in our faces several times an hour. Some of these cheerfully show grievous bodily harm being gleefully inflicted on men, which the media “watchdogs” would never allow if women or minorities were the butt of this psychopathic “humour”.

Despite being forearmed with this insight, I was nevertheless shocked to find viciously man-hating cards for sale in a Newcastle church. I complained, and was asked if I had a sense of humour. I replied that I did, but the cards were devoid of wit, they were just crudely and cruelly anti male. They could have been designed by Jo Brandt after lobotomy. Christian women were selling these inane insults inside a church.

Fortunately, there are still Christians who believe that, when Jesus portrayed God as a loving father, he did so for a good reason, and they will not condone the exclusion of fatherliness. For example, when the Bishop of Hulme, The Right Reverend Stephen Lowe, wrote his article regretting the decline of Christian greeting cards.

“There is something profound in the symbolism of a mother's love for her child. But I do get very irritated by the commercial and religious marginalisation of Joseph.”

But Joseph — like the father in the family nowadays — is seen as just an optional extra. The feminist folly that excludes the fatherliness of Father Christmas, foredooms the two annual peaks in men’s suicide . . . Fathers’ Day and Christmas.

It’s true that behind these deaths lie unequal laws, the biased Courts, the so-called Social Services, but what makes them the way they are? Those who work in these fields have been immersed — marinated — lifelong in the anti-male ethos of our time.