Let's examine why they have fallen behind. Let's look at what is done to little boys beginning in kindergarten wherein normal boy energy and boy behavior is pathologized and boys are treated as substandard girls that must be "fixed."
"Toxic masculinity" is the label given to normal and positive boy/man behavior. Combine that with the "You go, Girl" mantra in which whatever obnoxiousness or aggressiveness or loutishness a woman wants to exhibit is celebrated.
Boys have had what is both normal and required of men shamed out of them and I think a lot of them have kind of checked out and become man-children -- preferring Pornhub to relationships with women ... gaming online instead of fighting for success and conquest in the real world in an actual career.
I'm hoping for a turnaround and soon.
I work with a 22 year old boy who you described to a “T”. Real men will let the “boy” in them out when they are having fun, no matter how old they are, and then it’s back to being a real man. I see too many “men” who never grow up and they always act like prissy little boys, young women today treat them like they are children and will never be equals. That’s the type of relationship these young women have been taught to demand and expect. Then when they are in their 30’s they can’t find a real man to complete them and the men can’t find a woman to complete them. My 2 cents worth.
Sadly, you are so right.