History of Feminism
Related: About this forumWe need to talk about masculinity
The Labour MP Diane Abbott, launching a new campaign this week, is not the first person to kick up a fuss about this "crisis of masculinity". In a speech to the thinktank Demos on Thursday she said that millions of young men are in distress, acting out violently or sinking into depression. Unfortunately, the only solution many in the audience could offer is not giving men and boys more power over their own lives, but restoring their traditional power over women, as "breadwinners" and "male providers".
In the real world, not all men want to be "breadwinners", just like not all men want to be violent, or to have power over women. What men do want, however, is to feel needed, and wanted, and useful, and loved. They aren't alone in this it's one of the most basic human instincts, and for too long we have been telling men and boys that the only way they can be useful is by bringing home money to a doting wife and kids, or possibly by dying in a war. It was an oppressive, constricting message 50 years ago, and it's doubly oppressive now that society has moved on and even wars are being fought by robots who leave no widows behind.
The big secret about the golden age of "male providers" is that it never existed. First, women have always worked. Second, and just as importantly, there have always been men who were too poor, too queer, too sensitive, too disabled, too compassionate or simply too clever to submit to whatever model of "masculinity" society relied upon to keep its wars fought and its factories staffed. "Traditional masculinity", like "traditional femininity", is a form of social control, and seeking to reassert that control is no answer to a generation of young men who are quietly drowning in a world that doesn't seem to want them.
http://m.guardiannews.com/commentisfree/2013/may/16/masculinity-crisis-men
Warpy
(110,913 posts)If they're depressed and acting out, maybe it's because they see themselves with no future, now that labor has been looted to fatten a few rich guys.
Maybe she needs to look at JOBS and WAGES to cure the angst she sees among those young males.
Crisis of masculinity, my flabby, big blue butt. It's a crisis caused by government policies that have determined labor is worthless and only capital should be rewarded and respected.
ismnotwasm
(41,921 posts)redqueen
(115,096 posts)I will never get why people are so damned fond of genderfying everything.
It's so obvious that people need to kick the habit. Now.
It adds nothing, does nothing constructive, and in fact does A LOT of damage.
It is fucking stupid.
seabeyond
(110,159 posts)sense.
how can people even argue them.
i am clueless what they are. as seems to be everyone else.
redqueen
(115,096 posts)Kinda like 'feminist'
Seriously though, it really is some of the stupidest shit... and it does no good at all.
I also love what she says about the conservatives' vilification of single mothers, and the nod to MRA dumbassery.
Arcanetrance
(2,670 posts)A semester of law classes I dropped out. I didn't want to be a lawyer I wanted to be a chef. Well I got called every name in the book being told cooking is a woman's job and such. My girlfriend is a long haul trucker and I cook so screw gender stereotypes