If you’re a man like me, Hanna Rosin’s Atlantic cover story, “The End of Men” lassoed your balls and yanked ‘em tight like a choke collar. I held on strong for a while, but eventually I was blue in the face and begging for mercy like a little bitch. Stop it Ms. Hanna you’re hurting my masculinity! Ouchie!
I’m joking of course, but, Rosin’s piece has been the target of considerable frothy vitriol. To be honest, I haven’t actually heard any of the criticism, but I’ve got no trouble imagining where it’s coming from. Writing in the Nation, Katha Pollitt offered what should be, for all my whimpering/threatened bros out there, a little consolation: “The End of Men” isn’t about how men will suddenly cease to exist or be relevant. it’s about how men will cease to economically and socially dominate women.
Is that so bad?
The point isn’t so much that women are better suited to the post-industrial world—Though Rosin does spend a lot of her piece treading in the snow around this claim. The lesson for the would-be threatened is that the traditional male-dominated spheres are disappearing, and men won’t adapt. Women on the other hand are willing to focus, adapt, study, and work hard to get ahead. Isn’t that what our idea of meritocracy is all about anyway?
To my bros: Quit icing each other and get to work.
