Reporting on Mexican Tragedy Shows Why News Needs a Male Perspective

Thirty-eight men were kept locked in cells and died while fire raged, while women were released.

Most people have heard the sad news about the 38 people who died in a fire at a migrant detention center in Mexico in March of 2023. However, the reporting on this tragedy sadly follows a familiar pattern – I suspected it when I saw numerous headlines that read some variation of “38 Migrants dead.”

First of all, let’s keep this horrific event in perspective. This is an absolutely terrible tragedy for everyone involved. Our hearts go out to all those who perished and their loved ones, who are suffering.

But I believe we also need to look at how stories such as this are reported in various media outlets, because we often see a subtle, or not so subtle, anti-male bias.

Typically, when only men die, they are not referred to in the press as “men”, “husbands,” or “fathers”. They are described for what they are doing, such as miners, workers, or in this case, “migrants”.

Buried within this story is the fact that only people of one sex were killed.

All 38 of the people who died in the migrant center were men. That should be part of the headline. According to this article from BBC, quoting a woman from the AP: 

“There was smoke everywhere. They let the women out and the migration staff, but it wasn’t until the firefighters arrived that they let the men out,” she told Associated Press news agency.

Another article from the BBC neglected to mention the sex of the victims at all.

But it’s only the BBC that needs to be held accountable, this is a common pattern.

Here is another of the headlines:

Actual CBS News headline: “38 dead after, video shows, guards didn’t free migrants”

What if it said: “38 men dead after, video shows, guards freed women, but not men”

Notice the difference of focus? These are men, not migrants. And the fact that it was men, specifically, who were denied the right to live, is a vital part of the story that most outlets failed to cover at all, much less emphasize. This is a classic example of why we need news from a male perspective.