It’s difficult not to feel stressed and depressed when we reflect on the state of our world. Our political world is in disarray and extreme climate is seen throughout the country. Fires continue to burn throughout California. Here in Willits where I live we breathe the smoke every day from The Ranch Fire near Ukiah...Continue reading
The #MeToo movement has drawn attention to much horrific male behavior and deservedly has received much coverage. The Kavanaugh hearings also brought forth a torrent of discussion of what is sometimes called toxic masculinity. Headlines and social media posts about sexism, sexual assault, and men’s general piggishness abound. The harmful effects of misogyny, male boorishness...Continue reading
Consider this scenario: A couple gets into a fight, the woman hits the man with a frying pan and the man forcefully pushes her away. If the police are called, it is almost always the man [YR1] who is charged and hauled away. The recent case of actress Asia Argento, who allegedly forced a 17-year-old boy...Continue reading
Part 1: Fortitude I’ve been interested in maleness for as long as I can remember. When I was three years old, my mother took me to the shoe store to get my first pair of “little boy” shoes. I was entranced with the red Keds, until the salesmen explained that “You really want the blue ones. Blue...Continue reading
Angry white male voters. Men’s boorish—if not criminal—behavior highlighted by the #MeToo movement. The backlash after the Kavanaugh hearings. These have provoked much talk about “male rage,” as if it is a single definable phenomenon concentrated among working-class white Trump supporters. This is simplistic and wrong. And it makes it more difficult to address the...Continue reading
It’s an interesting time to be a man in America. While the progressive and evolving tone of gender equity has focused on women’s rights and empowerment in recent years, lost among the headlines about the #MeToo Movement, women’s equity and rights are the realities facing men in this country who are increasingly taking on more...Continue reading
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
