God knows I love controversy so I am going to take on the injustices perpetrated upon men by our society and the favoring of women. I am the first to admit we men have brought this on ourselves by not taking inventory of who we are and why we are the way we are. Compared to women tackling and addressing their issues, we are non-starters.
A good deal of what I will post will come from the writings of noted author, Richard Nocera and his take on Why Men Do What They Do from his book, Women Own All the Vaginas. Here is a sampling of his insights:
Could there ever be a Sex in the City for men too? No way! Men's sexuality would never be celebrated with raised glasses of champaigne in chic restaurants with millions of admiring men proudly watching their heroes toast each other's sexual conquests. In fact, it is just the opposite. Men's sexuality is routinely mocked, ridiculed, and demonized--degrading attitudes women would never tolerate. Consider this: How would our society react if men suddenly started keeping artificial vaginas by their beds, the way women keep vibrating artificial penises next to theirs? It would be seen as just one more indication of how sexually sick men really are. Women as a gender are headed somewhere. They are moving forward; they're improving themselves. Where are men headed? We're headed nowhere. No one is leading the charge to encourage men to move forward and improve their lives. What would forward movement even look like for men? Here's something to contemplate: If men don't improve themselves, we'll be lucky in twenty five years if women keep us around as pets. Chuckle now, but this could happen because no one of prominence is helping guide men to a richer, more fulfilling, and happier life. MEN HAVE NO OPRAH...but more on that and this topic tomorrow.
What's worse is that men don't think for a minute they need an Oprah. Men believe that needing an Oprah would mean they're needy and weak. Most men would say, "What the hell do we need Oprah for? We're the ones running the world. Aren't we?"
Not everyone loves Oprah, but name one man who helps men have a more meaningful life the way Oprah helps women. Rush Limbaugh? Bill O'Reilly? Dr. Phil? I don't think so.
Men need an Oprah because by nature, human beings are meant to evolve and improve their lives; and since we can, we should! Life is a process, not an end result. Is there anything men have consciously changed for themselves in the last fifty years? Sure, we've become better fathers to our children but that's because our wives have pretty much demanded it and many of our fathers were less than ideal. The truth is men have become participants in, rather than creators of, their lives. The bottom line is that men are too preoccupied with fulfilling the male agenda to pause long enough to get off their hamster wheels and seriously contemplate what it means to be born male in America. The enormous demands placed on men to compete, provide, and succeed have left men too distracted to be aware of what they truly want and need. I know this isn't true of all men, but I am not writing about individual men. I am writing about men as a gender group.
A good deal of what I will post will come from the writings of noted author, Richard Nocera and his take on Why Men Do What They Do from his book, Women Own All the Vaginas. Here is a sampling of his insights:
Could there ever be a Sex in the City for men too? No way! Men's sexuality would never be celebrated with raised glasses of champaigne in chic restaurants with millions of admiring men proudly watching their heroes toast each other's sexual conquests. In fact, it is just the opposite. Men's sexuality is routinely mocked, ridiculed, and demonized--degrading attitudes women would never tolerate. Consider this: How would our society react if men suddenly started keeping artificial vaginas by their beds, the way women keep vibrating artificial penises next to theirs? It would be seen as just one more indication of how sexually sick men really are. Women as a gender are headed somewhere. They are moving forward; they're improving themselves. Where are men headed? We're headed nowhere. No one is leading the charge to encourage men to move forward and improve their lives. What would forward movement even look like for men? Here's something to contemplate: If men don't improve themselves, we'll be lucky in twenty five years if women keep us around as pets. Chuckle now, but this could happen because no one of prominence is helping guide men to a richer, more fulfilling, and happier life. MEN HAVE NO OPRAH...but more on that and this topic tomorrow.
What's worse is that men don't think for a minute they need an Oprah. Men believe that needing an Oprah would mean they're needy and weak. Most men would say, "What the hell do we need Oprah for? We're the ones running the world. Aren't we?"
Not everyone loves Oprah, but name one man who helps men have a more meaningful life the way Oprah helps women. Rush Limbaugh? Bill O'Reilly? Dr. Phil? I don't think so.
Men need an Oprah because by nature, human beings are meant to evolve and improve their lives; and since we can, we should! Life is a process, not an end result. Is there anything men have consciously changed for themselves in the last fifty years? Sure, we've become better fathers to our children but that's because our wives have pretty much demanded it and many of our fathers were less than ideal. The truth is men have become participants in, rather than creators of, their lives. The bottom line is that men are too preoccupied with fulfilling the male agenda to pause long enough to get off their hamster wheels and seriously contemplate what it means to be born male in America. The enormous demands placed on men to compete, provide, and succeed have left men too distracted to be aware of what they truly want and need. I know this isn't true of all men, but I am not writing about individual men. I am writing about men as a gender group.
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