Writer.
New York.
Over edjamaketd.
Cultural myopic view that is no doubt accurate as far as the East River.
Posted on 09/21/2008 5:41:43 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Not so long ago, unmarried men were called "bachelors," but the word now seems oddly out of date. Back in the day, bachelors were a minor, outsider group populated mostly by loners of ambiguous sexuality or Hefnerian swingers with a taste for cool jazz and dry martinis. Today, as men marry well into their 20s and 30s and enjoy both a boundless pool of sexually available women and a commercial culture awash with "stupid fun," the young, unmarried male has become a far more prominent -- and more vexing -- social type. He has devolved into the child man -- or, if you like, man child, boy man or "basement boy" (a nod to his penchant for taking up residence in the rec rooms of suburban parents) -- with crude obsessions for Xboxes, "hot babes," and Will Farrell and Seth Rogen movies. The emergence of this social type is the subject of two timely books, "Men to Boys" and "Guyland."
"Men to Boys," by Gary Cross, a cultural historian at Penn State, offers by far the more, well, mature analysis of boy men. Putting his academic skills to good use, Mr. Cross traces a gradual devolution over three generations from the lingering Victorian ideals of masculine self-restraint, gentility and "measured deference to female culture at home" to the buffoonery of radio host Howard Stern and ex-basketball star Dennis Rodman.
Mr. Cross's early chapter on the Greatest Generation is perhaps the richest in his thoughtful journey through the male-strom of modern masculinity. Transcending the tired clichés about the era's "Father Knows Best" patriarchal conformity, he finds in the 1950s culture a complicated response toward older ideals of masculine probity and self- denial.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
"Men to Boys: The Making of Modern Immaturity", by Gary Cross
and
"Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men", by Michael Kimmel
An interview with Cross is at http://www.cup.columbia.edu/static/gary-cross-interview .
Generally on target, but given that video game adoption is rising even among the elderly it’s very difficult to accept the association between video games and the people complained about in the article.
The creation of the boy-man is deliberate. The gramscian socialists and their hangers-on in academia and the media. All the victimhood, nihilism, agressive-pacifism and self-loathing that the socialists feel for themselves is projected onto others. It is now our turn to deny their fundamental tenets - and if in the process we must ignore or reject some of the institutions they have parasitically overwhelmed, so be it.
Turn off your television and read a book. Turn off your radio and pick up a musical instrument. Learn do for yourself and your family, because in the end, the instruments of the state cannot (in some cases will not) defend and protect you.
Same here.....After working four ten and a half hour days,one twelve hour day and the odd Saturday, I feel like a god when I can stay up til 10pm.
I divorced a DIAGNOSED PSYHOPATH with a 15 year record of child abuse an neglect, who injured our children DURING the trial, and who had her older kids taken away from her by CPS in the past.
I don;t drink, smoke, do drugs, and 25 witnesses testifies on my behalf and 1 testified on hers but ended up confirming my story anyway.
The children were living with me DURING the trial, after she called the police and told them I assaulted her- only to have it proven I was not even home at the time.
It was shown that they dramatically improved while living with me.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
End result- Idiot NY STATE SUPREME COURT Judge John O’Donnel GAVE THE KIDS BACK TO HER AND LET HER STEAL ALL MY PROPERTY.
And to the idiots who automatically chime in with “huh- you married her” - when you are dealing with a PATHOLOGICAL LIAR and DIAGNOSED PSYCHOPATH it is pretty shocking when you find out everything you knew for years about her was a lie.
Thanks, Hugh Hefner and Gloria Steinem. You have done great work for your unacknowledged master, Karl Marx, by breaking down American families and thus American society.
Yeah bro, I can’t remember the last time I actually had a relaxing vacation. I think it was about 3 to 4 years ago.
I’m really sorry. That’s horrible. How are you assuring that abuse of the children doesn’t continue?
Does being laid off count?
My "gaming" friends laugh at me because I play this little, old, primitive game with little boxes that move around the screen.
When they try to get me to learn and play something new, I laugh at them and tell them that I don't have weeks of time learning how to play a stupid-ass game. In the amount of time it would take me to become proficient in that drivel, I could learn to speak Japanese or build a greenhouse.
So, on occasion, they find me moving little boxes around my computer screen (and I regret the time wasted doing that too....but it does help me relax after working 12 hours in my business).
Instead of strictly focusing on gay marriage and other nonsense for the breakdown of marriage, family, etc. Maybe much of the focus needs to put on the legal system. Guys are absolutely screwed in divorce proceedings and custody battles. Marriage is not worth it anymore.
I’ve live with my gf/fiance for a few years now and I can already see the signs of a bad situation occurring.
I'm almost 50 years old, if I was 25 years old again, just why in the world would I want to get married to some women who demands I be overtly sensitive and seek out my "feminine" side to be her male girlfriend, listening to her whine everyday
Sexual gratification is basically free if you have no religious morals or qualms about bedding women with no strings attached.
I can father as many children as I want as long as I pay for them without any real consequences since fatherhood is archaic and a burden.
I can play WOW or Evercrack to my hearts content without having to deal with a family
Women deconstructed men and fatherhood for 30 years and they got a bunch of self adsorbed effe boys ( military men not included )
The foundation of the social construct that made this country great, families and manhood, has now fallen apart and we will pay a heavy price if we already haven't
How to “domesticate” little boys is a challenge to every time and culture. Testosterone is a powerful chemical. A society composed of the cast of “Lord of the Flies” would not be a very nice place.
Having said that, America — and much of the Western world — has gone too far in the other direction, waging what some have termed the “War on Boys.” This has led to the increased feminization of males beginning in and most prominently seen in government schools.
This MAY serve to explain why we now are seeing more and more women in leadership positions: The guys have largely given up. While there are — and, hopefully, always will be — exceptions, many of these men-boys no longer even want to compete for those jobs.
Gotta run. There’s a very large woman in a loincloth carrying a spear at the door...
Not in my house...our seven year old is starting center and starting DT on the eight year old football team...he’s playing above his age...gotta go - game time in one hour.
The socially acceptable 'extreme' is going rock climbing.
From my perch here in Baghdad, any of the troops I work with are fascinating oddities in their home towns. Everyone here is a volunteer of one sort or another, and outside of our immediate social circles, thought of as very unusual for it.
For an increasingly early adolescent-like society, there's no understanding of why someone would seek out challenges, rather than just take the easy way and get paid. Doing as little as possible to get paid and screw off has gone from being the preferred route for certain classes of scoundrel to the American dream itself.
I'm returning home in a few weeks, after my third trip to Iraq. For as goofy and irresponsible as the troops here can be on occasion, they're head and shoulders above their civilian counterparts, and I'll miss working with them. They're far more emotionally developed and mature than their peers. Peers who avoid any chance to test themselves in the real world, and sneer at those that do as suckers.
I can't watch most will farrell movies. "Elf" was the only one I could bring myself to sit through the whole thing.
Marriage only compounds a bad situation. Run while you can.
If it is of any help, my step brother went through a similar situation with custody of his 2 boys. The woman (drug addict) moved to a different state after she took all his assets. He followed, got a new job and stayed in his sons lives. Now both boys are 17 & 19 and have moved in with Dad. In the end they figured out who really had their best interests at heart.
Financially this divorce devastated him. He has never achieved the success in business he could have earned, but his sons are turning into decent men and know their father loves them.
Hang in there.
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