More sexual divisionism and reinforcement of sexist prejudices

[Imagine_that]

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/6263783.htm


Guys have to work at reclaiming masculinity
By Deborah Hornblow
HARTFORD COURANT

MEN ARE IN TROUBLE.

They don't like to admit it, but a current shift in popular culture is saying it for them. Loud and clear.

This month, cable television made room for what is being billed as "the first network for men" on TNN. (Initially christened Spike TV, the network name is in dispute.)

British author and genetics professor Steve Jones' fascinating new book "Y: The Descent of Men" explains in bold biological detail why men are the true "second sex."

"Males are, in many ways, parasites upon their partners," Jones writes. "Their interests are to persuade the other party to invest in reproduction, while doing as little as they can themselves. Like all vermin, from viruses to tapeworms, they force their reluctant landladies to adapt or to be overwhelmed."

A recent article in BusinessWeek is titled "The New Gender Gap." The subtitle declares that "from kindergarten to grad school, boys are becoming the second sex."

Meanwhile, an article by David Brooks in the Atlantic Monthly heralds "The Return of the Pig" and suggests that grown men are returning to the ways of the male chauvinist for reasons that are partly defensive.

The roots of the problems facing new-millennium guys are as varied as the cultural corrections evolving to deal with them.

A favorite place to lay blame is, of course, at the feet of today's women.

Feminism has long been a dirty word among men who are uncomfortable without implied dominance; and as a result of the growing achievements of women in areas from business, politics, sports and culture to such traditionally male establishments as the military, some guys feel diminished.

As the pithy and eternally amused Jones puts it, "The present century may be the age of women: the first in which, like it or not, slightly less than half the population is forced to accept that biology no longer gives it an alibi for injustice."

Biology also appears to have less and less use for males.

"Men, toward the end of the last millennium, felt a sudden tightening of the bowels with the news that their services had at last been dispensed with," Jones writes. "Dolly the sheep -- conceived without masculine assistance -- had arrived. Her birth reminded half the population of its precarious position."

If that isn't enough bad news, medical studies show male fertility being compromised by a host of factors.

Jones describes in scientific detail the myriad ways in which environmental changes are lowering sperm counts. Meanwhile, testicular cancer is on the rise. And a study of Italian taxi drivers shows that sitting all day in a warm car seat -- effectively overheating what your grandmother called "the family jewels" -- compromises a man's ability to produce sperm.

"Perhaps, as men suffer the pains of modern life, so do their vital parts," quoth Jones.

Health studies of males -- from conception to old age -- demonstrate the myriad ways in which, as Jones puts it, "Masculinity emerges as a fragile and uncertain thing."

Now brace yourselves, guys. That's not all. Guys are feeling the heat in the workplace, too.

Susan Faludi, writing in her landmark 1999 book "Stiffed," points out that white-collar guys are hard-pressed to develop and maintain a sense of manliness in a context that essentially denies their physical selves. Men who are paper-pushers disconnected from their inner hombres may be longing for the "fight club."

Equally emasculating is the fact that traits and characteristics traditionally associated with women -- cooperation, adaptation and teamwork -- are prized in today's service-driven industries more readily than typically male attributes such as dominance and aggression.

Men seeking refuge in popular culture are in for a cold shower. For every supersize male action hero at the Cineplex, there is a larger-than-life go-girl kicking the stuffing out of his weekend grosses. The same pattern is discernible on the Billboard charts and on the lists of best-selling books. Where once guys and their interests held sway, men are now having to share what was once a biologically derived sense of entitlement.

But wait ... there's more. ...

An increased cultural emphasis on men's appearances -- from fashion layouts to Diet Coke commercials -- finds that men are under the same pressures to achieve idealized standards of beauty that have burdened women for decades and produced insecurities to which the marketplace offered expensive solutions -- from cosmetics and clothing to plastic surgery.

The guys in trouble are not just the adult males.

In classrooms across America, boys are slipping, too. BusinessWeek reports that what is under way is a "stunning gender reversal in American education." The story quotes William S. Pollock, author of "Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons From the Myths of Boyhood" and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "It's not just that boys are falling behind girls," Pollock says. "It's that boys themselves are falling behind their own functioning and doing worse than they did before."

Part of the problem seems to be that, in plain terms, boys aren't being allowed to be boys.

So what has begun to surface in pop culture is a masculinity reclamation project, a defense and validation of beleaguered boys and men.

In much the same way that specialized television programs, movies and publications evolved over the years to cater to women, a whole new breed of guys-only offerings are cropping up.

Much of the new go-guy fare gleefully plays to the lowest common denominators -- the beer-guzzling, belching, T&A sort of entertainment generally associated with the average bachelor party. Guys seeking more thoughtful explorations of what it means to be a man can look to Jones' laudable "Y: The Descent of Men."

In the end, the largest shift in thinking -- for both men and women -- must come from the realization that guys are not at the top of the heap anymore. Their strength lies in accepting -- and being accepted for -- the idea that they are part of it.

Let's hear it for the guys.

[Imagine_that]

I have never understood why it ever became necessary be number 1.......

I can see competition in the work place. I can understand equal pay for equal job....Fair hiring practices between the sexes...sure.......but exactly why is it necessary for one to be less, so the other can be more?

Perhaps I'm just kinda old fashioned........

Over the years the roles for both men and women have changed...many of them dramatically. The guidelines handed down from mother to daughter and father to son are in some ways very different. The expectations have also changed and I know this is where my 23 year old son has run into some problems in dealing with women. Most of his quandries are on a personal level not the workplace.....Simple things that I taught him to do.......small things that to me are courteous and thoughtful aren't accepted by the girls he dates......he no longer opens or holds the door, offers his seat....etc.....

These changes however have not made him question his masculinity....why would they?

Oh heck......I don't know...whole thing seems silly to me. I read so much over-analyzing these days and shake my head wondering exactly what is it all these so-called experts are trying to accomplish.....to me they are muddying the water even more and in alot of cases yacking to hear themselves yack and make a buck.....

[Tracking_U]

And you better not be wearing "milkbone underware. Or so it is taught.
A shorter name for this is called: "The ME Generation."

And just so you know. There is nothing wrong about "Being Old Fashioned." It makes for a better chase among other things.

As to the "Experts" out there. There are so many of them and it seems that none or very few are on the same page. To many contradictions amongst themselves. No wonder you and many of us are confused as to what they mean. Who said talk is cheap?

[andrewblow]

Of course we're # 1.

Who brought home the dinosaur steaks - YOU AND ME, BRO
The long haired blond in a leopard-skin 2-piece cooked it - but who killed the leopard? YOU AND ME
Who invented the wheel so's the Babe could move cave without carrying the birch-branch bedding? If it wasn't me, then it was YOU, BRO
And if it ain't still the same for you, then it sure is for me, so keep you're end up and stop agreeing with all this nonsense.

Stone the crows.....who's yr friend ??

Andrew