Crocodile Tears for the Boys
This article appeared in the New York Times on June 1st. It begins with the concerns of sociologists--"It's the problem that has too many names. 'Toxic masculinity'. 'The feminization of America'. 'The crisis of boys'. 'The end of men'. The state of manhood has become one more front in our culture wars, a debate that keeps breaking down along political lines."
Hell, I am 70 years old and have lived through all of them--eyes wide-open. Knowing what I know, I can only describe the opening of this article as the product of a closed mind, doctrinaire, or just disingenuous, expressing suspect sympathy. Much of the high-end female culture in America hates men.
So their expressing sympathetic perplexity over male discouragement, all of a sudden, does not make me feel appreciative. Any half-way intelligent male can pick up on the nitpicking, male-hating mentality. There is no use denying it. The signs are so ubiquitous, we don't even pay attention to them any longer.
Karen Duve flaunts her man-hating tendencies for all to see. Her image is a caricature of male-hate; but the reviewers of her book Macht do not care to mention it. ("Macht" means "power" in German.) They note her description of this character, her exploration of that theme, or how the theme or the characters compare to her previous books, without admitting that the woman has a pathological hatred of men--a really perverse form of neurosis. The sneering fury in her photograph is real. Why Duve lets herself appear like this is another matter: a sort of "Don't mess with me" expression.
The second image of Duve comes from the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, titled "Do Away with the Alpha-males!" Maybe Masochists or Penitents in Germany need Duve to discipline them or whatever. The husband of horrible Betty Friedan let her slap him around on occasion but stayed with her until her death.
Wikipedia has published an article titled "the Feminist Sex Wars" of the 1980s. It cites the academic work of the radical Feminists Catherine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin, who even antagonized other Feminists with their pathological hatred of men.
From the Wikipedia article:
Feminist positions such as Catharine MacKinnon’s offer an analysis of sexual relations as structured by relations of coerced subordination, and argue that acts of sexual domination constitute the social meaning of being a “man,” as the condition of coerced subordination constitutes the social meaning of being a “woman.”
Much of the influence of Betty Friedan and Catherine MacKinnon has carried over into the present. Look at recent releases by women authors on Amazon Books: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, for example. One reviewer describes her book's male characters as "cardboard stereotypes", "one-dimensional extremes", and "misogynistic predators".
If the Feminists think the males treat women badly, they ought to see up-close how the males treat each other. You see it especially in all-male situations, the military academies and all-male prep schools. Feminists could re-introduce the idea of single-sex schools and colleges; but women are still trying to make traditionally all-male schools go co-ed; so I doubt the single-sex idea will fly again.
Most Feminists vote Democrat. They favor left-wing policies, with an emphasis on equality over achievement, and inclusiveness over exclusiveness. If they don't like the idea of having to go to school only with other girls. They could possibly consider the idea of their own country in conjunction with other left-wing groups. They could go to the U.S. Congress with their national concept, and give themselves a sanctuary.
If they can't do this, the real problem may be the toxicity of a dependent relationship. The Feminists would like to leave, if only they had the courage and initiative. They may feel they have nowhere else to go, which fuels their negativity toward the males.