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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| 5 Things To Do About Our Culture's Antagonism Against Men |
| 2019-01-11 |
| [The Federalist] In modern society, many of the ways we talk about male identity have either negative connotations or encourage disparaging, eye-rolling satire. If the term is man, then common terms we hear are "man flu," "manspreading," or "mansplaining." If the term is dad, then there is a droll shaking of the head at a "dad bod" or at "dad jokes." If the term is guy, it is often in relation to stubbornly self-defeating behaviour: ’I got sick, but I did the typical guy thing, and didn’t go see the doctor." Or: "I was battling with my mental health, but I did the typical guy thing and didn’t ask for help." If the term is masculinity, it is often used in relation to things males must atone for or confront: "toxic masculinity," or "the crisis in masculinity." If educators, psychologists, and the media want to dissect emerging troubles in masculine identity, then a good place to start would be to acknowledge that many of the ways we talk about male identity undermine this goal. This is a problem that affects us all, because boys are growing up in a culture that is increasingly questioning what’s wrong with them, whilst perpetuating casual cynicism towards them. There are several reasons why this kind of thing gets overlooked. One argument is that it’s just light-hearted ribbing, and shouldn’t be taken too seriously; but many of the examples above are not light-hearted, and it all adds up to a big picture of masculinity being an obligingly easy target. It seems that women are in many ways entitled to "punch up" at a fracturing but still prevalent male entitlement, and that therefore putting male-chauvinist antics or clumsily wayward men "in their place" is an amusingly empowering thing to do. 1. Start Calling This Bias and Negativity Out So, the first change that needs to be made is simple and attitudinal: When boys see this kind of stuff on the TV, they should get in the habit of calling it out for being lame, and if anyone starts talking in a lazily derogatory way about men, they should tell them to take a hike. Do we still believe that the male hierarchy remains rigidly oppressive? Certainly not boys, or at least not as much as they used to. When they look out at the world, they aren’t seeing a society dominated by a tyrannical patriarchy. They’re seeing their sex through an increasingly disorientating lens of negatively reinforcing pop culture and politically correct ideology, and they’re seeing themselves, as a sex, continuing to fall behind. Women make up 60 percent of university graduates, and dominate education, health care, and law. Yes, there is a pay gap. While some of that is due to bias, it’s actually more to do with the fact that men do most of the dangerous jobs, work outdoors more than women, are in arduous trades more than women, tend to pick higher-paid occupations when they’re in training, and are more willing to move to get higher-paying jobs. In many big urban and metro areas, women are also outperforming men in wages. In highly upskilled New York, for example, women are earning on average 8 percent more than men. In domestic life, boys see that women make the decisions on big-ticket items, and are responsible for 65 percent of new vehicle purchases. Boys see that girls and women have better prospects, but don’t see anyone ever questioning the structures behind those developments, and they are culturally disincentivised to question such developments themselves. Psychologist and author Bettina Arndt, in her book "#Mentoo," asks: "Why are boys doing so badly at school when the whole curriculum is set up to advantage girls? Why do women have such power in the family courts to shut men out of their children’s lives?" Boys are being made to feel that their sex is in disarray, in crisis, and in decline, and that they are part of an enduring tyrannical patriarchy for which their sex must continuously account and atone, and they ought to help tear down. Points two thru five follow at the link. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |