Men treated women like dogs for centuries. That's not new. If you think that women should be treated like they are in the show Mad Men, that it should have always been like that, you're a goddamn moron. Sorry to break the news, but you are. I'm going to try not shoving my foot in my mouth the way Freud did, but feminism being a somewhat of a combative ideology, I'm expecting some anger from my female readership. Just please remember before taking the proverbial shotgun, I'm completely oblivious to the struggle of being a woman but I'm trying hard to reach out and understand.
This is a male perspective on the collateral damage of the power shift in the late-twentieth century struggle of the sexes. The Mad Men was unfair, deplorable even. But it was really clear. See, since woman emancipated, males have no fucking clue anymore. See, we are dumb (*for physical evidence, please refer to Joey Porsche on the photo above*) and while I don't claim things should go back to what they were, I think we should stop fighting and work together on re-establish clear gender identity. I have nothing against cross-dressing, androgyny or sexual confusion, BUT what I'm saying is that manliness is having a crisis when young men want to look like this or this, eluding the portrait of classic masculinity (that Gerard is rocking with class). What I'm looking to understand here is why it happened and why does young men developed this problem with assuming the very physical signs that they ARE men.
What Freud called so clumsily "penis envy" is really a power struggle (Freud had this thing with turning every issue into a disease). Women wanted their share of society's decisional power. And it's fair to say that their battle is still going on today. The momentum shifted though. Women still aren't treated as equals today, but they keep gaining ground, thanks to strong role models like P!nk, Michelle Obama, Joan Jett, Margaret Atwood, etc. But as a side effect, we, the males of Western civilization are having a crisis of image and identity. Like Tyler Durden said "we are a generation of males, raised by women" and we are experiencing confusion and existential dread, because we don't have a clear purpose anymore. We're not providers anymore, so what are we? That's for us to find out. But a side effect of this, is the loss of proper male image. You might not understand it if you're in your late twenties or thirties, but please take a look in a schoolyard and tell me if you see young boys wrestling, playing hockey, king of the mountain. They don't know how to be boys.
The solution to this problem lies in women, mothers to be more precise. The nest of the post-feminist condition (whatever that term truly means). During the emancipation of the seventies and eighties, many woman have struggled with leading careers and having families at the same time. Some of them deciding to stay at home with their kin, re-establishing a clarity of roles on a new basis of equality. Mothers worked from home, did their part, and were recognized for the pillars of family (the measuring unit of civilization) that they truly are. I guess they are the people I'm talking directly to. I'm asking you, women and mothers. What makes a boy? (aside from the obvious genetic difference). Does equality means homogenization of genders? Of course not, but we're getting there. Males start wearing make-up, spend hours and fortunes at the hair dresser, spend more time than you shopping for clothes. I'm not a father, but it might be one day. It'd be the biggest heartbreak to see my son coming home with torn jeans, square toed shoes, a v-neck and hair gel...to please his girlfriend.
Girls, BOMBS AWAY!
