Reeves quotes Kristof and WuDunn about the recent trend (which started in the 2010s): “Men in particular felt the loss not only of income but also of dignity that accompanied a good job.” from Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (p62)
Poor babies. Need I point out that women would not have felt that loss because they so often didn’t have an income in the first place or the dignity that accompanied a good job.
“Men are much more likely to commit suicide than women.” (p63)
Yeah. They are the weaker sex. And now, without the propping up a sexist advantage and priority, they are falling down.
I’ll add that my bet is that many a woman would’ve killed herself but for the kids she’d made and felt responsible for. Guess that doesn’t apply to men.
“Womanhood is defined more by biology, manhood more by social construction.” (p96)
What? Since when?
“This is why masculinity tends to be more fragile than femininity.” (p96)
I doubt that’s the reason. I’d point my finger at the fragile male ego? (Though yeah, I suppose it’s fragile only when idiot men accept that social construction.)
“When was the last “crisis in femininity”? That’s right: never.” (p96)
Um. Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique? Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch? The whole frickin’ second wave of feminism?
[about the term ‘toxic masulinity’] “It is a bad idea to send a cultural signal to half the population that there may be something intrinsically wrong with them.” (p108)
Ya think? (How clueless can Reeves be to women’s history?)
“Half of American men and almost a third of women (30%) now think that society ‘punishes men just for acting like men’ …” (p108).
Well, if the shoe fits. (And what, society hasn’t punished women for being female for, like, forever?)
“Masculinity is not a pathology. … It is, quite literally, a fact of life.” (p108)
Could be both.
And from p150 on, Reeves’ proposals for getting more men into health, education, administration, literacy … They’ve always been in the first three, in the upper tiers. Regardless, Reeves, you’re about fifty years behind. Those of us against sexism said all this and more back in the 70s. Ever year of John Stoltenberg (Refusing to be a Man)? Robert Jensen (The End of Patriarchy)? Apparently not. They’re not even in his index of names. Not even Marlo Thomas’ “Free to be (you and me)”?
My overall response? ‘Been there, said that, you weren’t listening, and now you think you’re hot shit for saying it’.
Typical.
