Remember the Atlantic’s July piece on the “End of Men”? Newsweek followed suit a couple weeks ago with an article about Men’s Lib. Now NPR is jumping on the bandwagon with an on-air debate over the realignment of masculinity. NPR Talk of the Nation’s Neal Conan spoke with writer Guy Garcia and Slate’s “XX Factor” editor, Hanna Rosin (who is, incidentally, the author of the Atlantic piece), about power shifts, women in the workplace, and the “he-cession.” (You can find the full transcript and the audio here.)
Here are some of the highlights of the interview, boiled down to bite-sized pieces. Delicious.
The Stats
- Women under 30 are making more money than men under 30 in 147 out of 150 cities.
- For the first time in America, women workers outnumber the men. The statistic hovers around 50 percent (plus or minus one). But high-paying jobs, too, are being filled by an increasing number of women.
- That said, there’s still a salary gap at 77 cents on the dollar.
- Of the 15 job categories expected to grow the most over the next decade, men dominate just two of those fields: janitorial workers and computer engineers.
- In 1970, women contributed only a small percentage of the family’s income. Now it’s just under half, 42 percent.
The Stereotypes
- Men are faced with being the “slacker” or the “superhero.” (The Good Men Project Magazine covered this a while back too.) The options? Be an uber-guy, says the study, or take your models from video games.
- According to one NPR listener, “Men are being unfairly discriminated against by affirmative action. For men to be happy, they need to provide. If women take that from their husbands, they undermine the success of the family. And there is a lack of positive role models, family leaders, [and] providers for males in the media. Instead we have men being portrayed as subservient and less intelligent. Ray Romano and Homer Simpson come to mind.”
Quotables
- “Well, Barbie grew in other places. But you know, at least Barbie has a better job now.”—Guy Garcia
- “Testosterone is the new estrogen. Testosterone is what people talk about as sort of affecting moods, causing the crash, the stock market, you know, all sorts of things.”—Hanna Rosin
To the NPR listener who speaks of discrimination: Is the problem really that women are “taking” these jobs from their husbands? Or are the husbands simply failing to adjust to a changing job market?
In adjacent news, Jezebel recently published a wonderful guide for men about feminists and feminism.
DId anybody happen to notice how much money these women under 30 are actually making on average? About $26,400 a year. That’s right, almost nothing. What about the men they are “out earning”? About $25,000 a year. Did anybody notice that they compared apples and oranges? They compared single, college educated, women under 30 to the entire male population under 30. They did not compare single, college educated to single, college educated men. Nor did they compare the entire female population under 30 to the entire male population under 30 in urban areas. Why didn’t they compare apples to apples?… Read more »
You good girly guys and you manly bitches might enjoy the online essay entitled The Misandry Bubble. You might also enjoy NIA’s YouTube clip The Day the Dollar Died for what happens when hot, fast, and loose (feminine) cultures collapse. Is a prostitute in every family (a la the Wiemar Republic) the best we can look forward to in the End of Men age. For the serious fellows who come here, I suggest the documentary Inside Job. There is heavy lifting to be done to take this nation back. Good guys will hardly suffice to take down the bad guys… Read more »
I think we need to stop taking the word of the bitches (both male and female) about what men are supposed to do and how men are supposed to act.
If someone doesn’t need a man, great. Go the fuck away already. This “if only men would change into whatever they want them to” shit is getting tiresome. Mostly because even if men did that, there would always be something else.
“In adjacent news, Jezebel recently published a wonderful guide for men about feminists and feminism.”
Man, this site gets more and more feminine every day… Is this really a site for men anymore?