Meet the New Boss - Same as the Old Boss!

I recently read an article in The Atlantic magazine - July/August 2010 issue: "The End of Men," written by Hanna Rosin, with illustrations by John Ritter. This lengthy article had one of the most depressing and insidiously sinister tones I've ever come across in journalism. The strides that women have made relative to men - primarily through their own efforts, but certainly with the help of many rationally "feminist" men - in the past century, and especially in the last 40 years, have been well-documented and are now obvious to anybody with eyes and ears. What makes this particular article so insulting is that this progress was not reported and described in a positive and celebratory fashion, or in a humble and cooperative fashion, or in an objective and mature fashion.

The astonishing fact is that Hanna Rosin chose to present her case with a snide superiority and smugness that is from the same chauvinistic mold of patronizing and demeaning attitudes against which, presumably, she and her fellow women have been battling! If this was the stance she was directed to take by the editor, James Bennet, then shame on him. Shame on the magazine in general.

This issue of Woman vs. Man is very similar to the decades - no centuries - of abuse, enslavement, and subordination of blacks by whites. In recent decades, blacks have finally moved into, fought for, and been elevated or elected into positions of power, prominence, prosperity, etc. Now that they (blacks) have serious representation in the general array of media outlets, have positions of management (low, medium, and high) in commerce and in government, have the majority and superior position in many sports and certain facets of the entertainment world, one would think that they might consider halting the "pendulum" at the center: balance.

Perhaps some are endeavoring to do this, but, alas, many of them are not. Otherwise, we would see the dissolution of the NAACP and the BET network. Maybe their work is not done. Okay. What criteria must be achieved in order to signal that BLACKS have arrived?

Oh - wait a second! I began this post with a condemnation of an article in The Atlantic magazine ... about WOMEN. Yes, it seems that women such as Rosin, and quasi-feminist editors such as Bennet, have taken it upon themselves to encourage another giant pendulum swing to just cruise right on by the center - i.e. the optimal balancing point - perhaps to slam to the other side, just like many BLACKS are doing.

Is it any surprise that I, a white man, am feeling targeted? This doesn't do me or us (humans) any good. Why don't we - the concerned citizens that we are - call a spade a spade and work together to achieve fairness and balance? What I'm talking about is a shock absorber placed on the chassis of a vehicle that has, in fact, been run into the ground by many, many WHITES, ... by many, many MEN. Isn't it more prudent to slow the pendulums, once we've identified them of course, and help them stay at or very near the "center"?

Look again at my title. This is a quote from The Who's classic rock hit, written by Pete Townsend, "Won't Get Fooled Again." The meaning here is that when blacks find themselves in a position of parity, or equality, or even superiority, they don't do themselves any favors by playing the same worn-out card of ignorance made famous by short-sighted, mean, and just plain stupid whites in our past and, unfortunately, our present. Of course, the same reasoning goes toward the substantial, if not phenomenal, progress made by women in recent years. If prominent women, and editors of national magazines (male or female), allow the framing of this movement in "Us vs. Them" terms, a la redneck chauvinists of Ye Olde Guard, then don't be surprised if a true gender war erupts. It won't be pretty.

My hope is that emerging genders, emerging races/ethnicities, emerging nations, etc. will look around and do their damnedest to continue to work hard, to be respectful, and to pursue ideals of justice, truth, fairness, and respect. These ideals are the shock absorbers that will help the vehicle of our (global) society travel the bumpy road ahead in the smoothest and most comfortable manner.

Perhaps the next issue of The Atlantic will include a follow-up article, a more humanitarian and objective treatment of the fact that many men (not all!) have, to a very real degree, stepped aside, given up, or been outclassed by women. This article might help point out ways that men in general can get back to mid-field and stand arm-in-arm with their "better halves"!

My sincere hope is that such a follow-up would not include a side article of such irredeemable toxicity as "Are Father's Necessary?" This piece (I refuse to call it journalism) by Pamela Paul, that was tucked in to the larger article mentioned above, ended with a Molotov cocktail of an insult, hurled at the family structure itself, and towards all fathers: "The bad news for Dad is that despite common perception, there's nothing objectively essential about his contribution. The good news is, we've gotten used to him."

This paragraph is so blatantly snide, malicious, and corrosive that I am appalled that it got past even the third-string assistant editor - man or woman. If this was done to stir controversy, to trigger debates, and to evoke rebuttals such as this, it is a childish and wasteful ploy. It must have been a MAN who assigned this crap. It must have been a misled and unenlightened WOMAN who played the role of weak-minded provocateur!

Yes - try to dismiss me as just a complaining white guy, surpassed by clever and superior women. BUT wait - - - consider my final point. The author (or editor) magnanimously included a poem by a well-known representative of the Men's Movement, Robert Bly. I was pleased to see the hint of an oasis in the midst of the stultifying spread of negativity. Why the editorial staff chose the particular poem, "The Ant," I have no idea ... unless! Maybe I'm proving my lack of literary understanding, but this poem has nothing to do with the power of men, the virtue of men, or the importance of men. This poem has nothing to do with the power of women, the virtue of women, or the importance of women. Its placement here looks utterly pointless ... which I believe proves my thesis. The explicit claim put forth by The Atlantic is that the work of men is pointless. More simply, the magazine is saying: men are pointless.

So, Editor of The Atlantic, please retract this article. Please apologize to English-speaking and English-reading men and women everywhere. Please let us know that you want to help us (humans) evolve, improve, and progress. If this is the product that you are marketing, woe be unto you. Woe be unto the society that condemns and demeans such a significant portion of its own body. Surely, such a society is doomed.