Men - The 'New' Women?

I've been hearing buzz in the media lately about men being the 'new women'.

My knee jerk reaction to this is along the same lines as my reaction to the argument, "What do they need Gay Pride Day for? There's no 'Straight Pride Day'!?!"... because really, everyday is straight pride day, just like every month is white male month. I intend to show here, that my knee jerk reaction is right.

Women are graduating university at a greater rate, as well as enrolling more often. We are waiting to have children, until we've got careers on the go. In fact, we are doing all sorts of things before marriage that we never did before - we are buying homes (all alone at that!), travelling, having kids, having careers, having experiences outside our parent's basement. All of the above, and on less money than men make doing the same work.

Men, in contrast, are living at home longer than in the past, and are less career driven and oriented than their female counterparts. They are less likely to own a home before a woman, and they are therefore more likely to be living in their parent's basement, playing video games, as a full time job than we are. They don't dress as mature men. When was the last time you saw a 30 year old man in a shirt with a collar? The t-shirt is the standard uniform. They have, essentially, lost sight of what is intended to happen to them after high school: they are supposed to grow up. But they aren't. They are teenagers stuck in the bodies of 30 year old men. Why? Because growing up means giving up something - total freedom of responsibility.

Women on the other hand, have taken their already responsibility-heavy lives, and piled on more. Their own lofty goals sit a-top society's expectations: motherhood, home keeping, scrap booking, looking perfect in a dress, getting great haircuts, 'girls night outs', worldly travel and blog-writing... add in some pressure to cum every time we get fucked by some random dude in a decade-old t-shirt (because of course, we're the newly evolved female that is comfortable with that sort of thing) and you've got a rough picture of what it is like to be a modern female.

So what have we become? We aren't the 'new men'....we are both man and woman in our own lives. We open our own doors, we fix our own cars, we earn our own money, and we bear our own children. We have created a situation for ourselves wherein it is difficult to feel whole if you can't achieve all of the aforementioned things, without help. "Why can't you do it all?" our inner voice says, "You are a woman!". We've taken the work load of children and housekeeping and doubled it with the responsibility of being the breadwinner and battle fighter. All this while perched perfectly in kitten heels just like the ladies on Sex-In-The-City. Because heels are now a symbol of female success, or something.

While the media is busy trying to make us believe feminism has been successful, reality speaks a different truth; the very reasons feminism became a movement are completely lost on today's youth. Today's young girls are more strongly pro-life than ever before in the past. They don't seem to like the word 'feminism' very much - it's been demonized. They believe themselves equal to their peers - but don't seem interested in fighting for the same rights as their peers - because they are too busy being trained how to be a 'diva', what with their perfect manicures and degrees in psychology.

I suppose this will be controversial to say so, but what seems to be happening is that feminism has created a monster. The new monstrous woman is never satisfied with a simple success. We aren't satisfied just by getting better marks than men. We also need to have better degrees, better jobs, better cars, and better family lives. After all, many of us now have 40hr-week jobs, and two kids, and volunteer, and plan the household and generally run things on the home front. The real purpose and goals of feminism have been lost. Yes, we can wear pants, use birth control, and live alone....and yes, it's not such a big deal for us to have children out of wedlock....but can we really have 'any' job we want? Do we make as much money? Are we taken as seriously? Are we equally represented in politics? Business? Media? Absolutely not.

A great example was given to me by a friend who is studying Sociology at Guelph University. Her professor, a female, managed to obtain the pay structure for the sociology department at the university, made photocopies of it, and handed it out to the class. As a result of this, she was suspended without pay for 30 days. What information did she leak that the university didn't want students knowing? That all of the female professors in the department were paid significantly less than their male peers. Why? No good explanation surfaced. The whole thing was put on a hush-hush rule by the faculty. The female prof's education and skills were identical. Why would a respected university do this to it's female profs? Because this is the status quo. This is what is socially acceptable in today's world. Don't believe me? Go into any large business. Take a look at who is sitting in the cubicles, and who is sitting in the offices with doors. Then come back and talk to me about this, ok?

My point is this - the media would love young women to believe that men need the hand up. That they are suffering and need special classes, just like young women have had, so that they can feel important.

Don't be fooled young women! Don't believe this hype created by a male-managed media! Men might have a delayed adolescence, but that is their choice. They choose not to be as driven - everything that is available to us is available to men x10000. Don't believe the media reports otherwise. There is still so much to fight for.