Concern is finally being raised that men are struggling, being grossly under-represented in college and graduate schools, many having trouble finding meaningful work and relationships, and a substantial number still living at home. This has been building for several decades. Before getting into the article sparking this, I will say that the cause has been obvious. One subtrend of the effort to give women equal opportunities, was to demonize men. “Toxic masculinity” was pushed everywhere. Boys and young men were basically told they were inherently bad. They were overtly discriminated against in favor of girls and young women in educational and work opportunities. Support programs available for females were not available for males. And we continue to have many boys living in families with no primary role model. And they encounter few male teachers or staff in K-12 schools. And there are very few male mental health professionals to assist them.
So the outcome is totally predictable. What is especially disgraceful is how few mothers have spoken up on behalf of their male children. You read almost nothing about the “disparate impact” of the policies that discriminate against male children and young men; hindering their educational achievement and work opportunities. The authors of the article note that the impact of the demonization of masculinity has been to give men a suicide rate several times that of women and for them to account for 75% of deaths from alcohol and drugs. They also note the grotesque disproportion of women in college and graduate schools. This can only be due to discrimination, according to the liberals own definition of discrimination. We need more lawsuits, but most judges are women–will they stand up for men, the way male judges stood up to stop discrimination against women?
It is important to fix this, any country needs to maximize its use of available human resources, and we need every human to have an opportunity to have good work and a good life. We should immediately reverse the policies discriminating against men, ensure that males are entering the teaching profession and being hired, get males into the mental health professions. The demonizing and the discrimination have to stop, or we are creating a serious source of trouble with all these disaffected young men. (PT Article)
have 2 grandsons-9 and 4. I pray for them
Oof this one is rough. What a great way to undermine the society by attacking the most basic political unit, which is the family. Erode one of the key institutions and everything else starts to crumble.
In my experience, biblical teachings, when applied as intended, are the only ones that actually line up with what a man needs to actually do. A husband and father are there to be a provider, protector, leader, teacher, and model for righteous behavior. And it all must be done fully out of love and self-sacrifice and reliance on God, with a willingness to die to one’s self, ie put aside all personal desires, ambitions, and pride. Jesus did just that, and He is the model.
The Bible continues on to exhort children to obey their parents, which sets up and affirms parental authority. That has also eroded tremendously in recent years, both with government intrusions on parental rights, and on the increasingly terrible behavior of today’s kids.
I will be teaching my son, who is eight, to be a good, godly man. To take care of his mom and sister, and be gentle to them. That he has responsibilities even if he doesn’t feel like doing them. That he needs to work hard. That it isn’t about him, but it’s about lifting up others. Most of all, I’ll be teaching him to rely on God’s strength and wisdom to do this enormous task.
The Bible is where these “traditional values” originated, along with other values such as human worth, objective morality, and love for neighbor. Without God’s word, these things have no framework to hang on. It’s where we need to return.