*After some consideration, the American Psychological Association has determined that being masculine is “psychologically harmful.” None to my surprise, the APA has determined that there is more than one gender, and that you are not necessarily the gender of your biological sex at birth. The APA has concluded: “socialization for conforming to traditional masculinity ideology has been shown to limit males’ psychological development, constrain their behavior, result in gender role strain and gender role conflict, … and negatively influence mental health and physical health.”
This is good to know, and in the next paragraphs of this article I will explain what this behavior has engendered. The study indicates the source of many problems, excuse me, “male” problems that have burdened society for far too long.
Women outnumber men on college campuses now, for the first time in history. Men are three to five times more likely to commit suicide than women. (In fact, while three men that I have known or worked with have committed suicide, I can’t recall any women that I have known or worked with killing themselves.) Recent reports indicate that boys are struggling in school and are “more often diagnosed with mental disorders such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.” I always knew being male was a privilege. We have the privilege of being punished for having natural hormones, and said punishment drives us closer to mental problems and suicide. Privilege indeed. Notice there are no accommodations for this “male disease” only that it is wrong and it has to be stopped.
As females dominate the early years of education in public and private schools, along with more female heads of households, young males have fewer and fewer male role models. Courage, adventure, risk-taking, and sports requiring great physical strength are discouraged. The blue-collar occupations are facing a shortage as our young men prefer to sit on the couch and play video games. I cannot blame the young men, as the blue-collar wages, driven down by cheap immigrant labor as well as unions and their apprenticeships being thrown aside, while the managerial class lines their nests with compensation exponentially greater than in previous decades; all the while the same people lamenting the lack of available laborers find more and more ways to keep blue collar labor as temporary and poorly compensated as possible. The managerial class cut their own throats and then cry that no one wants their meager wages and dubious opportunities. Maybe these young men are not as dumb as some think.
…the age at which young men marry has risen from 23 in 1960 to 29 today. Why have a feminine partner when you’ve been effeminized?
Way back several decades ago, many companies were forced to hire more women in trades such as carpenter, welder, roofer, plumber, electrician, and others. It turns out that after decades of equality, it is only the young men who are being called lazy for not taking up these trades. Where is the criticism of young women?
They’re equal, aren’t they?
Is there some trait that we can find and severely criticize young women, and why aren’t they being called lazy for not taking up those trades that so many people fought to make equal? Apparently, females are not to be criticized for not taking up the trades, only the young men. I point this out, only to emphasize the harsh and blatantly unfair criticism of men at the hands of society, encouraged by organizations such as the APA.
Aren’t characteristics like seeking physical challenges, dominance and aggression, and risk taking, exactly what employers are looking for when seeking young people to take up those skilled trades? Perhaps it is the education and socialization, as well as the effeminizing of young men, telling them that their natural competitive, risk-taking tendencies are shameful, and that has led us to this shortage of skilled trade workers. Blame the people who follow the now politically correct organizations who can’t find enough things wrong with being male. Thank the American Psychological Association for this precedent-setting conclusion. They have every right to be proud of their accomplishments and the impact that they have had on our society: Young men who are confused, depressed, even suicidal, who see themselves and their natural instincts as detrimental to society, and young women who never wanted those blue-collar jobs who join in the chorus of criticism of young men. By the way, the age at which young men marry has risen from 23 in 1960 to 29 today.
Why have a feminine partner when you’ve been effeminized?
I seem to recall a masculine trait as tending to protect those physically weaker than them, a trait ignored by the APA. Masculine used to mean taking care of and protecting weaker people, be they members of one’s family, neighborhood, clan, or nation. This hormone, called vasopressin, makes men aggressively protect their loved ones. Well, we don’t need that anymore, now do we? One of our sworn enemies, a certain group of religious fanatics, insist that to be killed by a woman means they will go to Hell. Now, if we can just find more young women who want to send our sworn enemies to their final reward, we would be in fine shape.
As in all of the politically correct science, only the bad traits are recognized, and anything good is ignored. The assault on masculinity proceeds unabated, and now masculine traits are deemed detrimental to one’s self and society in general. Is it possible that male and female traits complement each other? The politically correct view, where ideology has replaced objective, scientific conclusions, has been adopted wholeheartedly. For the record, I recommend androgyny, or the possession of both male and female characteristics. In another essay I will defend my androgyny position; suffice to say that possessing both characteristics of male and female result in more flexibility and understanding as a person, along with more flexibility of responses.
For now, and the foreseeable future, male characteristics are just bad, as determined by organizations such as the APA. I would recommend more orientation towards androgyny, but then, I’m looking for a balanced view, another politically incorrect position. Political correctness keeps weakening our society, and, after impregnating academia, formerly respectable and impartial institutions are adopting positions that they might someday regret. For now, the balanced views are over. I find their lack of insight and paucity of impartiality downright appalling.
Jeffrey Neil Jackson is an
Educator & Literary Mercenary
toxic masculinity toxic masculinity toxic masculinity toxic masculinity