Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Today's Gender Theme: "Real men don't need permission"

Yesterday we discussed the problem with men who want to become women (and, conversely women who want to become men--without even going through the application process). Today we address the question: Is it okay to be a man? With society, I mean.

And we will address the issue by quoting a very interesting article in the American Spectator which has pulled yet another lesson out of the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts. In fact, so many lessons have been seen in the Scott Brown victory, that we are now officially wondering if there is anything it doesn't mean.

In any case, here is William Tucker, writing in the American Spectator:
There's lots of reason Scott Brown won Teddy Kennedy's old Senate seat this week -- health care reform, cap-and-trade, the deficit, exasperation with Democratic rule. But there's one other that shouldn't be missed -- he ran as a guy and it's OK to be a regular guy again.
Of course, there are some of us who never thought we needed anyone's permission to be a regular guy, but there you go.

Here was a guy who drove a gas guzzling pick-up truck. I'll have to admit I was shocked to find this out. I mean, can a guy get elected in Massachusetts if he doesn't drive a Volvo? In fact, it was a surprise to me that trucks were allowed in Massachusetts.

Tucker expands on his recent observations about the fact that men are losing jobs faster than women. He argues that this is partly due to the fact that service jobs are overtaking manufacturing jobs, in which men formerly thrived, and undoubtedly he is partly right. He points to the Huffington Post, which claims that government jobs and jobs in industries that serve the sick, the elderly, and the disabled are replacing jobs that involve hard, manual labor:
Does that sound like decline or what? At this rate we'll soon have an entire economy based on pushing each other around in wheelchairs. (Note also that half these sectors get their entire income from the government.)
But if you combine this with the fact that women are now more prevalent than men in higher education, you have to start to wonder if the more pressing problem is that men are getting stupid and lazy.

In fact, NPR recently ran a report talking about the problem of women who make more than their husbands--and how they wished it weren't so. They are better educated and more gainfully employed.

Surely someone can tell us how the Scott Brown victory explains this.

No comments: