This blog will in no way be related to my travels or times here in Korea. It is simple an observation that I made while checking out cnn.com that made me think and had some strong thoughts i'd like to share.
Check out this link to understand where the material for this blog is coming from:
Just a quick recap . . . This article was on cnn.com and is talking about how men are in serious trouble of losing their " dominant status " in society. Here are some of the key points and then I will discuss some of my feelings.
"Now, society has rightly celebrated the ascension of one sex. We said, "You go girl," and they went. We celebrate the ascension of women but what will we do about what appears to be the very real decline of the other sex?
The data does not bode well for men. In 1970, men earned 60% of all college degrees. In 1980, the figure fell to 50%, by 2006 it was 43%. Women now surpass men in college degrees by almost three to two. Women's earnings grew 44% in real dollars from 1970 to 2007, compared with 6% growth for men."
"There is a maturity deficit among men out there, and men are falling behind."
"Man's response has been pathetic. Today, 18-to- 34-year-old men spend more time playing video games a day than 12-to- 17-year-old boys. While women are graduating college and finding good jobs, too many men are not going to work, not getting married and not raising families."
"We need to respond to this culture that sends confusing signals to young men, a culture that is agnostic about what it wants men to be, with a clear and achievable notion of manhood"
"We may need to say to a number of our twenty-something men, "Get off the video games five hours a day, get yourself together, get a challenging job and get married." It's time for men to man up."
And there you have it. The basic sum of the article. It is comparing women to men, saying how the population of women is surpassing that of men in both education and maturity. Blaming the movies, tv shows, video games and society for sending todays youth a confusing message of what a "man" should be. It says how more women then men are graduating from college to go on and get more intellectual jobs. The very last quote really gets me "Get off the video games five hours a day, get yourself together, get a challenging job and get married. It's time for men to MAN up."
Let's just start with me saying, "Why do we need to continue to compare men and women?" As a society we are expected to fit into these gender stereotypes that have been passed down from generations. Men as the provider, he goes to work, makes the money, comes home, takes care of the "man" duties around the home and then wakes up and does the same thing the next day. And women as the homemaker, taking care of the children, taking care of the cleaning, cooking and child raising. The perfect "soccer mom" image.
Now i'm not saying there is anything wrong with a woman who decides to be a homemaker and a man who is the provider. But. . .why must we continue to put people into these neat little categories with a neat little bow??? Can't we have diversity. Can't a man be a "homemaker" stay home, take care of the children while his wife works in a high status career? Are women going to college more then men, yes. Are women gradually making more per year, yes. But, when you look at the salary of women you need to remember women had much farther to go then men and had much more room to grow from what they were making before. So, a woman earning more over the years is not a surprising statistic.
Along with these statistics, we need to take into account the state of our economy. Men and women are losing jobs at an increasing rate all around America. The job market is not friendly to anyone. You could have gone to school, have a ph.d and STILL not be able to find a job. You could apply to 100's of different employers have TONS of interviews and STILL not be able to get a job. The job market is extremely depressing to even think about. The sentence for a man to "stop playing video games for five hours a day and find a challenging job" is insulting on so many different levels.
It isn't so easy to just go out and "find a challenging job." The context of this article is not putting into account the state of our economy. Before people start judging a part of our society about NOT having jobs, perhaps they should look into the context of their research that they have been getting.
"a culture that is agnostic about what it wants men to be, with a clear and achievable notion of manhood" What would this clear notion of MANHOOD be? What does that mean? What makes a good man? These stereotypes are so frustrating to me. My idea of a "MAN" might be someone who goes out into the woods, cuts down a tree, builds a house from that tree. Then he goes out and kills a deer, cuts it up and cooks it on a fire for dinner. While someone else might think that a "MAN" is someone who has a high status job, works 70 hours a week, never sees his family so that he can "provide" the right amount of money for them. While someone else might think that the middle class man working at Lowe's, walmart or home depot. Who goes to work everyday and makes enough to survive and provide enough money to put food on the table a "MAN."
There are so many different definitions to so many different people. Does the media have something to do with it. Of course, our media and our society forms opionins of people and creates these sterotypes that we always think of. But, that doesn't mean that the "man" who decides to go into the military and not start a family until he is older is less of a man then the one who is a high end lawyer who marries out of college and starts a family. Pushing the men of our society into marriage when they aren't ready isn't going to make matters any better. It will only result in more broken families and children being raised with two seperate families. Is that REALLY better for our society? I don't think so.
So there is my rant. You can agree or disagree. But, those are my feelings that I wanted to share.
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