If you’re seeking non-fiction, I can’t recommend this book enough. This fascinating and important read discusses the crisis of the decline and struggle of young men (especially young black men) that’s unfolding right before us and no one seems willing to address it, let alone discuss it out of fear of being lambasted and slimed as a sexist, chauvinist, and misogynist. The author, Richard Reeves, provides a panoply of stats, data points, policies, and drivers showcasing the sheer outperformance of women across all facets of society. Women are outperforming men in school, from elementary to post-graduate. Women are dominating several job industries and sectors while simultaneously closing the gap on those historically dominated by men. Women are, in general, healthier and living longer, while men are rapidly falling into depression, suicide, drug-overdoses, and alcohol-related illnesses. Reeves praises and supports the huge leaps and achievements of gender equality for women, but argues a society that has half of its population thriving and the other half struggling is a broken and nonfunctional society. This dovetails with NYU Professor Scott Galloway’s new book, which says that an increase in the number of broke, uneducated, and alone men will produce more susceptibility to insane and dangerous ideologies and consipracy theories, and violence in the form of homicide, rape, and mass shootings.
Reeves reviews the political discourse that’s poisoned our society the past several years. The left has vilified and turned their backs on men, and mistakenly and stupidly treated all forms of masculinity as “toxic”. The right has embraced men and masculinity, but at the expense of women (and transgender people), as they feverishly attempt to wind the clocks back to the “good ole’ days” when women were treated as property. This explains the explosive popularity of men like Jordan Peterson, Josh Hawley, and Andrew Tate who pose a danger to shaping the minds of young men and their perception and treatment of women. Both sides have handled gender equality as a zero sum game, which has only derailed progress to true gender equality and a robust society and economy.
Reeves offers a few solutions and suggestions to address the malaise of men without sacrificing the progress of women. To name one: Since girls neurologically develop and mature faster than boys, girls have outperformed boys in virtually every academic performance measure. To level the playing field, Reeves suggests starting boys a year or two later in Pre-K to allow their brains to mature and catch up to girls.
EDIT: Ostensibly several people have taken issue with the statement that women are “thriving”. To echo what the Joker says in the Dark Knight as he holds onto Rachel Dawes as she hangs off the side of Bruce Wayne’s penthouse apartment before ultimately letting go, “Very poor choice of words.” I’d like to substitute it for: Women are on an upwards trajectory in academics and the labor market, while men are on a downwards trajectory.
masoyama t1_isa94y5 wrote
Men that are "failing" are usually pretty pathetic to start with. They went from having 100% of the societal advantage to only like 80% and their solution is to kill themselves or become fascist. Sad, whiny babies.