The recent election has exposed a gender gap in our culture. Mary Eberstadt wrote a very concise article in First Things on this subject. She begins by observing, “Red and blue Americans are locked in a hostile custody battle” with an awareness that”the gender gap has never been wider.” The Wall Street Journal reported in July of young men leaning more rightward than young women. She noted the influence of online “alpha males” where young men hear, “the song that today’s young men sing among themselves sound the same – and only the political right seems to be listening.”
“The Intellectual Dark Web” is populated by men finding a fusion between repudiating identity politics and standing for freedom of expression. In regards to identity politics, there seems to be a “synergy between enthusiasm for sports and contempt for political correctness.” The doomed 2023 Bud Light ad, united bros found a “cause that their enlightened betters couldn’t shut down,” in a rebuke of gender bending. Forbidden wisdom can be heard on the Web: “men and women are different, sterilizing kids is wrong, marriage and family are the way to go.”
Eberstadt observes, “Today’s New Right, like today’s populism, is powered in large part by a search for male authority, direction and amour propre – a triad visible to anyone who can spell ‘Jordon Peterson.'” “Today’s young men,” believes Eberstadt, “don’t need another nanny……. they need something…….lacking at home and searching for in politics.” They need a “daddy.” She observes in our day, “superior players haven’t a clue anymore about what makes young men tick – whether it’s driving fast, failing to ask strangers for directions, treating Sunday football like church, or saving a subway car full of strangers from disaster……these players haven’t only lost the script about young men. They’ve unlearned the alphabet of human nature.”
Eberstadt notes the need for “male self-respect.” “It’s grounded in the belief that rules exist and retain their authority, from baseball to church to war……The real mystery in the political sex imbalance isn’t about boys and men, but girls and women.” Since the 1960’s we’ve heard the same message, “men are bad; the future is feminine, career first, egg-freezing next; the best ending after falling for someone and making a baby together is to get rid of it.”
Eberstadt ends by noting how the creation story has been passed over by seeing men and women as “minor anatomical variations.” “If that were true, the gender gap wouldn’t exist in the first place. Politics didn’t create this divide. But in the political quarterbacking to come, its real origins demand a closer, more empathic look than they’ve yet gotten anywhere.”
Wow, I rejoice in a strong Catholic woman saying what I’ve needed courage to say. Our culture has, “not only lost the script,” but we have “unlearned the alphabet of human nature.” The real origins of male and female will “demand a closer, more empathetic look then they’ve yet gotten anywhere.” I began writing this blog in the summer of 2009. That is 14 years ago, when I was 68. Through the 70’s into the confusion of our day, I have attempted to help men with their masculinity. In 1968 the gender issue was not such a hot topic as it is today. I have watched male issues change and evolve.
The exposing of the gender gap, at least for me, is a wake up call to continue with the “wild man journey.” I ask all who read this blog to join the struggle. “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” ( II Cor. 15:58)
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