Modern men feel emasculated, study claims.
You know that I wasn't going to pass that headline up. Webster says that emasculated means "deprived of strength, vigor or spirit". Hell, yes I think a lot of modern men feel that way and for a lot of reasons.
I think the media, especially television, depicts men and manliness badly. Remember Mr. Roper on Three's Company? But it's more than sitcoms. The general tone of the media is that men are dumb klutzes driven by their gonads. Granted that we have members of our sex who are just that like the dumb blond of the fifties and sixties but like the blonde they're a distinct minority.
We can't speak honestly any more. Try speaking your mind in a business or public meeting these days and saying something that isn't considered politically correct. You'll find yourself chastised at the very least and out of a job at worst.
I also think that a lot of the emasculation that we feel is due to our lack of self-worth. We're no longer the primary breadwinner or caretaker. It's not unusual in my experience for the wife to be the primary earner. And I think that the level of divorce in this country is a contributor. Every man wants a family around him to be proud of and for every marriage that fails there is a man who feels that he has failed as a man and/or father.
Women have contributed to our lack of manliness because they have become much more assertive in our culture. And rightfully so. But they're not the real cause of our loss of manliness. WE are the real cause because we have allowed it to happen.
It's manly to be leaders, hunters, gatherers, honest speakers and someone who acts bravely in the face of danger. It's in our genes and in our spirit to do those things. We need to recapture what we have allowed to escape from us. We've got to become men again by acting like men and not the wusses we are now.
March 26, 2008 in
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Very nice post Lewis. It reminds me of a book I read some time ago, "Iron John" I think was the title. He had the same general theme. The part I remember that relates to this post was that once we quit going to work with our fathers in the field, factory etc. at a young age and started going to school taught largely by women what you described started to happen.
Posted by: Ridge Walker at Mar 26, 2008 7:27:41 PM
sigh. Buck up, gentlemen,I believe it will turn around again. I also note that a good many of my gender who choose not to work outside the home also choose to control their men by telling them just how useless and awful they all are. Just say no, ok? I'm counting on you to do that.
Posted by: Alecto at Mar 27, 2008 9:01:59 AM
I dunno. My take on this is kinda like if you were one of the black people that Al Sharpton (or Rev. Jeremiah Wright) speaks for. Y'know, feeling like everything in your life was controlled by The Man and that you had no real chance to achieve anything.
Yeah, "The Sisterhood" has mounted a concerted attack on the very notion of manhood for a long time now. But at heart, "The Sisterhood" is a bunch of angry commie lesbians, so it really isn't incumbent on us as men to give a damn what "The Sisterhood" thinks.
I say treat women with respect and ignore "The Sisterhood," and bring up your male children to do likewise. It all works out in the end.
Posted by: Pete (Alois) at Mar 27, 2008 1:02:14 PM
"angry, commie lesbians"! I love it, A.
Posted by: Lewis at Mar 27, 2008 3:03:14 PM
I'll allow that we may have a few more of 'em up here in Madison than you do in Tennessee, Lewis.
Posted by: Pete (Alois) at Mar 27, 2008 3:24:31 PM
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