The Myth of Male Decline
nytimes.comA must-read from Stephanie Coontz for the New York Times. Why you (and everyone) should ignore (and indeed, poo poo) every article that makes these ridiculous claims.
“On December 22, 1962, one month before The Feminine Mystique hit the bookstores, the Saturday Evening Post published a cover article purporting to offer a portrait of the typical American woman. ... The Post's story was based on more than 1,800 interviews and extensive polling by the Gallup organization. According to the author, George Gallup, it was not intended to examine "the extremes" among American women. "Old maids," divorced women, childless women, and working mothers certainly existed in America, he acknowledged, but they were of concern mainly to sociologists, "because they are unusual" and exist "in a society that is not geared for them." The article's aim was to portray how "most" American women lived and thought.”
—An excerpt from social historian Stephanie Coontz’s book A Strange Stirring. Coontz appears on Fresh Air today to talk about the enduring legacy of Betty Friedan’s book and what the world was like when it was originally published.“We will know we have made progress when equality and friendship become more sexy than adoration and uncertainty.”
—Stephanie Coontz“Is this really the fate facing educated heterosexual women: either no marriage at all or a marriage with more housework and less sex? Nonsense. That may have been the case in the past, but no longer. For a woman seeking a satisfying relationship as well as a secure economic future, there has never been a better time to be or become highly educated.”
—“The M.R.S and the Ph.D”- NY Times, Stephanie Coontz
“Certainly, some guys are still threatened by a woman’s achievements. But scaring these types off might be a good thing. The men most likely to feel emotional and physical distress when their wives have a higher status or income tend to be those who are more invested in their identity as breadwinners than as partners and who define success in materialistic ways. Both these traits are associated with lower marital quality. Few women really want to marry a man whose penis rises and falls in tandem with the size of his paycheck or the prestige of his diploma.”
—Truth! Read the full article, link below.
I’ve basically been sitting here for the last hour reading about all the ridiculous stuff Hanna Rosin says and fuming about it.
In case you’ve recently read or heard about her book The End of Men, you should check out some responses to it (trigger warning for rape):
- http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/09/21/debunking-hanna-rosins-end-of-rape-claim/
- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/opinion/sunday/the-myth-of-male-decline.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
- http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/08/14/exaggerating-gender-changes-2/
I definitely don’t think we shouldn’t consider behavioral and societal patterns among/about men and worry about what they mean. For instance, I’m really interested in the things Michael Kimmel has to say about how masculinity norms negatively affect men (http://faculty.ucc.edu/psysoc-stokes/Masculinity.pdf). It seems, though, that most of Rosin’s claims are alarmist and inaccurate, and are based on distorted or invalid data.
If thinking about Rosin’s book being read by millions of Americans who will then use it as fodder to explain why “feminism is dead” isn’t enough to fill you with rage, here’s some more fun stuff I’ve been wading through tonight (trigger warning for rape):
I don’t think I agree with this critic’s analysis of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I do think he has some solid points about the way rape is used (overused) in film.
That quote near the bottom about jail rape rates. Appalling. And shows like SNL continue to use “jail-rape” jokes to excess (because talking about people being bodily violated against their will is HILARIOUS): http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/scared-straight/1191670.
Why Gender Equality Stalled
nytimes.comToday the main barriers to further progress toward gender equity no longer lie in people’s personal attitudes and relationships. Instead, structural impediments prevent people from acting on their egalitarian values, forcing men and women into personal accommodations and rationalizations that do not reflect their preferences. The gender revolution is not in a stall. It has hit a wall.
“Certainly, some guys are still threatened by a woman’s achievements. But scaring these types off might be a good thing. The men most likely to feel emotional and physical distress when their wives have a higher status or income tend to be those who are more invested in their identity as breadwinners than as partners and who define success in materialistic ways. Both these traits are associated with lower marital quality. Few women really want to marry a man whose penis rises and falls in tandem with the size of his paycheck or the prestige of his diploma.”
—Truth! Read the full article, link below.
“I went through the ads of The New York Times back in 1963 and ‘65, and they were all, you know, for the women’s section, “pretty gal Friday.” You know, one asked for a college gal, but she had to be single. One employer said you must be really beautiful. I mean, imagine.”
(Social Historian Stephanie Coontz talks about her new book about Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique)
