Overlooked by society, irrelevant to employers, unwanted by women who can raise families on benefits without their help, the man who has no work or a series of short-term jobs is a problem. Without steady work, he will struggle to acquire a family: unemployed men are less likely to marry or cohabit than employed ones. Without a stable relationship, he is less likely to grow into a good family man and raise good sons. The taxpayer has become the father: one in four mothers is single and more than half live on welfare. A lot of these women describe the real fathers of their children as “useless” or worse. The men have no role.
In the worst cases, the State has helped to create a class of jobless serial boyfriends who prey on single mothers on benefits. When two of these men moved into the flat that Haringey Council had generously provided for Tracey Connelly, Baby P’s mother, the little boy’s fate was sealed. They killed him. Other such men appear in bit parts in tragedies such as that of Shannon Matthews, abducted and drugged by her own “family”. The welfare system has helped to deprive these children of the most effective check on abuse — the family.
Robert Rowthorn, Professor of Economics at Cambridge, has shown that female and male worklessness have been going in opposite directions for 30 years, well before this latest “mancession”. His research suggests that half the rise in lone parenthood in the past 30 years may be due to male unemployment. He believes that governments must start to focus on these men, and question the feminisation of education and the workplace. It is no solution, he says, to say that women don’t need men or that men should become more female. Nor is it any good waiting for economic growth to dig them out of poverty. Those men need a chance, not a benefits system that undermines them.
I've noticed this a lot recently, especially on the media. Men are more and more portrayed as useless, stupid, boorish, backwards, out dated, and the cure for all their ills seems to be "to get in touch with their feminine side."
Some men "metrosexuals" and the like, play into this perception, others become more guarded and retreat into being "men's men."
What's your thoughts?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
The men being portrayed as foolish is nothing new. is nothing new. From The Cosby Show to Everybody loves Raymond, and Home Improvment, the men are portrayed poorly. I suppose it comes down to a question of who else can they make fun of? Other groups are protected and if mocked the shit hits the fan.
For every man who is not irrelevant and who pulls his weight there is surely at least one man who does not. Watch a payday at a long term care facility here in the states. The women who work in these facilities attract men who do NOTHING. They don't work, they don't keep the house. Well, they do something, they fuck the girls and get them knocked up and help them cash their meager earnings. I know a woman whose husband has not worked in 14 years. He also does nary a thing around the house. They heat with wood in the winter and she chops that too in addition to everything else she does. Why she has not tossed his worthless ass out is beyond my ability to comprehend. OTOH I work with a therapist who has a woman living with him who has never worked a day in their 20 year relationship. Maybe there are other cases like that where the women are wothless and the men just don't speak up as much about it.
Gob wrote:
I've noticed this a lot recently, especially on the media. Men are more and more portrayed as useless, stupid, boorish, backwards, out dated, and the cure for all their ills seems to be "to get in touch with their feminine side."
You mean they need to grow up and develop rounded personalities, rather than stay childish bullies? This is bad, how?
loCAtek wrote:
You mean they need to grow up and develop rounded personalities, rather than stay childish bullies? This is bad, how?
Not all men are childish bullies, and not all men need to "get in touch with their feminine side."
There is a still a place, and a value, for masculinity in our society I believe.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Fair nuff, I didn't mean to say it as 'all men are childish bullies', but that bullying is childish behavior in that it is based in insecurity. Some men over-emphasize their masculinity to the point of bullying behavior, rather than face that they have human insecurities.
Facing insecurities with the courage to be vulnerable, is what some call "get[ting] in touch with their feminine side." which is just acceptance of all of who you are, so that you don't feel so insecure that you have to overcompensate for it.
