The hardships facing many of Bermuda's men can be attributed to subtle negative messages on television, drugs and family strife, a lecture audience heard.

More than a dozen members of the public attended the 8th Annual Dr. E.F. Gordon Memorial Lecture held at Bright Temple in Warwick, on Tuesday, which was hosted by Minister of Culture and Social Rehabilitation Dale Butler.

The topic was 'Bermuda Men: The Way Forward' and the speakers focussed on the mixed messages being sent to young men in this society.

Minister of Health Nelson Bascome, one of the panellists, described Bermuda as a "sick society" and spoke of the abuse, traumatic stresses and affliction often at the root of men who have fallen by the wayside.

The panel paid homage to the legacy and character of Dr. Gordon, who most in Bermuda consider a champion of the civil rights era and of workers' rights.

Dr. Gordon came to Bermuda in 1924 and electrified the Island when he challenged segregation and discrimination.

A founder of the Bermuda Workers Association, a forerunner of the BIU, Dr. Gordon wrote himself into history when he took a White Paper to England in 1945 to highlight the racism and inequality that existed in Bermuda.

LaVerne Furbert, editor of the Worker's Voice newspaper and Eddie Fisher of ChildWatch, formed the rest of the panel.

Mr. Bascome spoke of how many men on the Island find themselves exposed to drugs.

While most in the community condemn the use of hard drugs, alcohol abuse is rampant. For children exposed to alcohol abuse it can be a gateway to using harder drugs, he said.

"Most people know, in our society and in most societies around the world, alcohol is a legal drug," Mr. Bascome said. "So those individuals saw their parents or parents embarking on such things.

"When they got older, the drug of choice happens to be different – that's what they graduated to."

Mr. Fisher, president of ChildWatch, spoke of his admiration for Dr. Gordon.

"Dr. Gordon epitomised for me, what a struggle was all about," he said. "What a good fight he put on — he could bring about solutions."

Switching the focus to himself, he continued: "Sadly I am often miscategorised, constantly called a 'male advocate'.

"Everything that I am today is through my mother. Women are my first love and I have two beautiful daughters and a beautiful wife.

"All of you probably have a TV and have all probably watched a sitcom. I'm going to lay money down that in that sitcom, nine out of ten situations, the father is portrayed as sitting on the couch, drinking beer, watching the football game and making foul body noises.

"This angers me because we're supposed to be getting a laugh out of the man seen as incompetent. It's saying it's OK for our young men to grow up and be incompetent, sit on the couch and drink beer."

Ms Furbert spoke of the social challenges of broken families.

"In an ideal world, each of us would have been born into a family with two parents, in an ideal world, separation and divorce would not be a reality," she said.

"In an ideal world both parents would participate in the lives of their children, and we would not have the problem with young black males in Bermuda or anywhere else on the planet.

"However, we do not live in an ideal world and hence, on a daily basis, families experience challenges."