Posted on 05/28/2009 2:48:58 AM PDT by Scanian
Over the Memorial Day weekend, many college administrators attended a conference about the absence of men on today's college campuses and expressed concern about the negative experiences and unprecedented challenges facing college men today.
The "2nd Conference on College Men" at the University of Pennsylvania featured sessions examining the implications of negative comments about men that are prevalent on college campuses and the sexist campus activism of participants in the nation's 500 college gender studies departments. The conference program, attended by about 100 professors and student affairs personnel, exposed some unpleasant facts: men are "overrepresented" in drug and alcohol abuse, violations of campus regulations, and acts of violence and sexual assault, and they are "underrepresented" in academic programs and campus leadership activities.
Over the past couple of decades, the male-female ratio on campuses has been changing dramatically. Women outnumber men by a 4-3 ratio on college campuses. Men currently make up only 43 percent of college graduates.
In short, many today acknowledge that there is a crisis of the disappearing educated male.
Some experts claim that the imbalance begins in the public schools, where recess and physical education are being cut. More active boys are at a disadvantage, they say, when there is no outlet for their energy and restlessness. In addition, Title IX programs have hurt men's athletics with the less profitable men's sports being cut (over 400 men's collegiate athletic teams have been cut since Title IX went into effect) in order to fund women's programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Looks like another version of the United States of American Idle. People are so bent on style(cool, unattached) and completely ignore their own ambitions. Eh, what do I know? I don’t understand this country anymore.
This assumes that the University is still a place of education. Allan Bloom destroyed that myth 20 years ago. The American mind is closed.
As an educated professional who is currently enrolled in a Graduate degree program, I can attest to this article's verity. The focus of a grand majority of on-campus groups is women. Men are highly under-recognized in academe, and even orientation groups focus heavily on amenities for the women. There are women only study groups and areas of the library. There are ladies' nights at the clubs. There are an overwhelming number of women's groups on campus for everything from outdoor activities to xylophone lessons, and yet men are still being seen as drunken, disorderly reprobates who barely pass through their degree programs. I graduated with a 3.67, thanks much.
And what really fries me is that we are hearing almost daily about men being subjugated, but you don't hear an uprising of men asking for suffrage. No, we float through our lives; we are the high school troublemakers, the collegiate binge drinkers; we are the fraternity pranksters; we are the class clowns; we are the risk takers; we ascend from entry-level work to the corner office in just a couple of decades; and we retire sated with our careers, feeling that we accomplished something. Never once in that process do we have to deal with glass ceilings or pregnancy, but lo be the man who ascends to that corner office after marrying the wrong woman. We are the hardest hit in divorces; we are the least likely to get kids in a custody battle; up until our early 30s, we have a better chance of dying in a bar brawl than a car accident; we pay higher insurance premiums; we are more likely to die before women; mens' cancers don't have entire government arms to shovel money into them for research while women have Breast Cancer awareness month and vaccines for cervical cancer-somehow I think that Prostate Cancer awareness month might not go over well as breasts.
My point in this rambling diatribe is that women have everything they need to live successful, fulfilling lives. This BS about being paid less than men on purpose is complete bunk. If this was knowingly occurring, there would be much gnashing of teeth amongst the NOW groupies. We read stories like the one last week about 40% of live births in the U.S. occur to unwed, single mothers. I'm 29 years old. I've not fathered a child. I've not even thought I was the paterfamilia for any women with whom I've had the pleasure. I am debt free, dating a wonderful, mature, older woman; I am a homeowner; I have a good job that will vault me into a better one; and yet I am still considered a boozer, a reprobate, and apparently, accordingly the likes of Cosmo, I don't know how to find the clitoris.
I'm tired of the male bashing. We are given the tools to make our lives successful. The government in this country does well to leave us alone long enough to make inroads into something propitious. Just because a dwindling number of numbskulls at America's universities are getting into trouble doesn't mean that we're worthless. It means that they need to stop cutting men's programs and try to find a way to either make co-ed mandatory for all on-campus activities or find ways to bring men back to the schools.
If the Gen Yers and their predecessors are the group they're specifically targeting, they're dealing with a lot of kids who started drinking, using drugs, and having sex at 14, 15, 16 years old. College, to these men, is a target-rich environment, and if they are the subjugated class, why bother working hard to make a name if Suzy B. Better is going to be recognized first? Seems like the women's movement has answered more questions than were originally posited.
Some of it may be laid at social expectations. For years we’ve had to boost the expectations of women - and it worked. Now what do we have?
Look at our TV sitcoms and commercials. All men are bumbling idiots, all women are bright and articulate. Even minority men aren’t exempt - check out the George Lopez show. Shows aimed at kids aren’t much better, “iCarley” is about a very bright, mature young girl being raised by her big brother - the very epitome of the bumbling fool. There’s one bright spot, the father on “Hannah Montana” (Billy Ray Cyrus) - his character is actually intelligent. The brother however, is an idiot.
This problem is huge and won’t go away anytime soon.
Young men are simply failing. They are told they are useless, unneeded, violent, dangerous and stupid. They are fed a curriculum of feminism where men are deliberately undervalued, are left unchallenged, etc.
What a disaster in the making. And women will suffer from this too because while they go on to college and start high powered careers with a good salary (we hope!), they will find it increasingly difficult to find worthwhile, compatible husbands. Thank you so much modern liberal society for messing our kids up!
Quote from the article:
“As Christina Hoff Sommers said in her book, The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming our Young Men, the fact that “women are significantly more literate, significantly more educated than their male counterparts” is likely to create a “lot of social problems;” the lack of well-educated men does not “bode well” for anyone.”
I recommend Sommers book. She said nothing I had not read or heard elsewhere, but it was interesting to har it from a feminist who realize faminism caused the problem!
NO More Calls, Please.
We have a winner!
Well, we can whine about liberal culture and the dominance of education by women, or we can just take care of our own sons.
I was raised by liberals, attended liberal private universities, but saw the light turned into a man (and a conservative) at age 27. My son (currently age 14) will not have this problem. We shoot, fish, ride kayaks, and talk. He knows that his teachers will try and de-emphasize manliness but will play along through school. We talk about the role, and need, for strong men in society.
I expect he will never suffer from being a girly-man.
Blacks threw away their men and fathers - and look how well they’re doing... /s
2) The problem here, too, is that to make up for the European-ancestried men (natural-born US citizens) who are being held back, the feminists and others are choosing to import high-achieving males from Third World countries. While this allows them to indulge in multicultural rainbow unicorn fantasies, what actually happens is that a lot of the men from these countries hold women in a lot lower esteem than American men, in their *private* lives. And then they compete with the US citizens for the few prestigious, well-paying jobs which are left open to men, further depressing the ranks of the "marriageable" men (women tend to marry UP socioeconomically, unless they want a metrosexual lapdog, or a boy toy).
And another related unsustainable trend is the practice of the upwardly mobile women to put off having families until late in life: the number of children drops, which does not augur well for demographics, and the children are shunted off to "day care" (no more extended families in today's modern, mobile, sophisticated world). With the lack of love, the children become resentful and don't know how to give or receive love themselves other than...well, hooking up.
These things are seemingly great for the yuppie vermin young adults now, but they are throwing the society and culture under the bus. Nothing in their lives, nor in the values now missing from their childrens' lives, will build, nor nurture, nor sustain a great society such as the one we've built: it will be fragmented into the hyperachievers and the poor.
These are the seeds of a Third World Country.
NO cheers, unfortunately.
The issue isn't the education of the male but rather the declining value of the university product and the perfectly reasonable response to that; the smart man turns away.
While not raised by liberals, I was raised by a single mother working two jobs, so in a way, I was raised by my teachers, Scout leaders, immediate family, and my peers. Your emphasis on the shooting sports and outdoor events is what makes a man a man. Men MUST be shown success early on, or they never figure out the reward system embedded therein. I learned to read before my 2nd birthday, and I excelled in school. I was bored with my pre-college education, and that was unusual when I was going through the motions.
Sorry ladies, you are powerful forces in the lives of your little boys, but without men there to help, they are going to need a lot more than just a band-aid and a kiss. I can attest to not having a viable male influence in my life, and at 29 years old, I can say with certainty that I am still working through a lot of issues that men of 2-parent homes go through in their early 20s. I don't care what women think or say, nor am I putting down my mother's efforts, but men MUST be involved in the raising of a child to make that child, male or female, competitive and intellectually capable in this world.
The true value of men who can 'fix things' will not become apparent until the Great Depression of the 21st Century begins in earnest...
As much as I would agree with you, you know that the chattering class would regard rejection of college as a poor choice. Their conception of a bright, educated person is very narrow indeed.
The issue isn't the education of the male but rather the declining value of the university product and the perfectly reasonable response to that; the smart man turns away.
Brilliant points, Muir, and as a male with a BA in English and working on my MA, I can say that you are spot on with your assessment. The problem with Gen Y is that they don't want to work. They universally want to take the path of least resistance, and turning wrenches at the local Tire Kingdom can get that done. Unfortunately, you then have a relationship in which the man is a blue collar nobody, and the woman is an upwardly mobile career woman. Thus you have the blue collar work ethic propagating amongst the family, and they're turning out more wrench-turners.
Absolutely NO disrespect intended to mechanics, my old man is one, but without the propagation of education as a means to a better ends, the kids are going to be fine working at $12/hr. It's easier to live with mom and dad, pump gas into the car, drive around with friends, and work when you want to. Who needs 40 hr. work weeks and pressed shirts when you can smoke pot, party, and live with mom and dad until a sugar momma comes around?
No girly men in our household either. Our boys sometimes grumble when it’s time to pack for a Scout camping trip, but they have a good time with their friends once they get out of the house, and it does them a world of good. They learn great practical and leadership skills and develop self reliance that many of their peers lack. My husband shows them how to fix almost anything, makes sure they mow the lawn, and takes them camping, climbing and boating. Far too many youngsters in our community are being raised as “hot house flowers” who excel academically but seem to live in a bubble wherein their only responsibilities are to their own upward mobility. Not healthy, in my opinion.
AMEN!!!
One could substitute any minority (black, hispanic, jew, gay) for the references to "women" and the article would still work just fine.
It's all about "P.C." my friend. That is what killed this great country!
Oh yeah, let's not forget P.C.'s old friend, "affirmative action"! Both policies led to the demise of our free enterprise system.
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