Despite the decades-long drumbeat for gender equity, young American men still feel strong social pressure to adhere to traditional male roles to be tough, sexually aggressive and controlling, even though most personally don’t believe in the tenets of old-style masculinity. This disconnect between how they feel they should act and how they say they want...Continue reading
Steven Wilkerson, a former Marine who fought in Iraq and a father of three, makes $8 an hour at a Tampa fast-food restaurant. He usually gets off work and takes the bus home at 10 p.m., too late to see his kids before they go to bed. Wilkerson, 28, is just one of millions of...
Amid all the largely disconnected discussions about angry white males, stagnant wages and inequality, fatherless families, and polarized politics, several striking linkages among these issues have largely gone unnoticed. Tens of millions of white men have been expelled or checked out from mainstream American life – a reality with profound consequences for our economy, our...Continue reading
In 1993 a father of sons realizes extreme feminism is an attack on his children. More than 25 years ago, I experienced a turning point in my feelings about gender issues. Starting in the late 1960s I had always been a feminist: I supported female faculty at my college in the early ’70s when they were starting...Continue reading
Most people see thousands of media images daily. Over time, these portrayals help shape our expectations of parenthood, in ways some call “gender stereotyping.” While the media now lambastes fatherhood, portrayals weren’t always this way. Bob Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, said: “While dads in ‘Leave It to Beaver’ and ‘The Donna...Continue reading
Should we try to make our sons like what our daughters used to be? One of the things I remember from my graduate school experience was learning about “Occam’s razor.” Basically, what I recall is that it meant that when competing theories arise, it is best to use the one that makes the fewest...Continue reading
Progressives still label worry about men’s and boys’ problems as conservative. So there I was, reading a piece in the New Yorker by Steve Coll, titled “Donald Trump’s Fake News Tactics(link is external),” where Trump was seen as “draw(ing) on the contemporary idioms of the alt-right.” Quoting a report by researchers Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis, Coll...Continue reading
After yet another school shooting, which we all knew would eventually happen, the connection between fatherlessness and school shooters has finally been seriously exposed. Several videos, discussing the links between fatherlessness and school shooters, generated over ten million views and articles drew an unprecedented level of interest. In fact, for the first time in decades, the issue broke into the national media, in...Continue reading
20. Mid-July was a transition point for me in the warehouse. For the first time, I now had something interesting to do over the lunch break. In addition, I had become expert in my work, and had already cut the size of the pile of damaged bags in half. I felt that I could actually...Continue reading
8. Over the next few days, I got better at my job. I became familiar with the dinky and organized all aspects of the reconditioning process. My arms and hands began to grow accustomed to the work. By the end of the first week, my daily output of reconditioned bags began to exceed the average...Continue reading