There is also a polar-opposite twin to hypermasculinity, brought on by the absence of male role models: “hypo-masculinity,” the absence of masculinity. And, again, portrayals of it abound in popular culture and everyday life: Metro-sexualism, the sensitive male, the banning of dodge ball, padded playgrounds, back and chest waxing, feminized scents and colognes, TV commercials that portray the father figure as buffoonish, incompetent or absent.
But there’s another manifestation that’s more troubling, and its track record is now undeniable. Author and therapist Michael Gurian writes about it in his book, "The Purpose of Boys."
“Girls outperform boys in nearly every academic area. Many of the old principles of education are diminished. In a classroom of 30 kids, about five boys will begin to fail in the first few years of pre-school and elementary school. By fifth grade, they will be diagnosed as learning disabled, ADD/ADHD, behaviorally disordered or “unmotivated.” They will no longer do their homework (though they may say they are doing it), they will disrupt class or withdraw from it, they will find a few islands of competence (like video games or computers) and overemphasize those..... Once a person sees a PET or SPECT scan of a boy’s brain and a girl’s brain, showing the different ways these brains learn, they understand. As one teacher put it to me, “Wow, no wonder we’re having so many problems with boys.”
The article makes a good point about the prevalence and problems of hypo-masculinity. Even the government seems to be in on the hypo-masculinity game. Reader Mathew sent in a link to the government site Fatherhood.gov where Barack Obama's smiling face is on the front page sharing his "fatherhood message." In the media highlights, "good dads" are portrayed as a man getting a manicure from his daughter and another dad doing a cheerleading routine with his daughter.
Is this the President's vision of American manhood?
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