What About The Boys? Male Issues Ignored in U.S. Culture

@jadedoto on twitter says "FINALLY"

I think it's true. Maybe the boy's will have to wait until they grow up and have E.D. before they get attention.

Wow, talk about controversy... yeah, I am decidedly for it!!! Male depression right along side feminism woohoo... we live in a world full of mixed mentalities that confuses the bejesus out of both sexes... the feminine roll teaches woman to be empowered and men to be gentle and caring... which often is good, but more often not confuses the whole matter, women (and I really wish I saved articles that sight these things right now, good viable sources are hard to find on this stuff) want out spoken dominant men as partners shall we say... women statistically like rough sex with lots of hair pulling and spanking... these are statistics (look them up if you wish)... but you have guys who are programmed not to be this way... they are gentle soft spoken romantic sex guys... which leads to the over playing of the green day song nice guys finish last and suicidal tendencies because they are continually rejected for who they are. At the same time we have other woman who have been raised to be subservient and men who are raised to be jack asses (can you guess which crowd I label my self as?) On top of that whole oversimplified mess we expect to find a person who meshes with us entirely with no compromise, perfect out of the box and do not develop communication skills to tell the other person how we feel about different issues. On top of that even, talking about these things is considered taboo even to this day... you bring these things up and people get uncomfortable... this is not going away any time soon, people are far to self absorbed to take any notice of any of this on a large scale... you can have quasi intelligent conversations about it here... maybe, but go step out the door of your house or apartment and you are surrounded by the reality of shifting eyes and uneasy movements toward the door. You throw the bad communication and out of the box ken/barbie doll effect in there and you have a bad cocktail for ill thought out open relationship proposals and all manner of other ill fated inklings... and yeah we have an unprecedented number of unmarried 20 and 30 somethings running around being depressed... male and female... go figure... next thing you are going to tell me is we have a drug and alcohol abuse problem in states...

america has no culture of it's own and for boy's there is no true rite of passage to manhood. the closest thing our culture offers to mark growth is booze. it is so important for a boy to be recognized as a man, it bonds him to his society. america as a whole does'nt have a clue how to raise a human, groups like the jews, indians or mormons know what humans need to develop. here's a clue; people are tribal not independant.

Royulery, I'm pretty sure the rite of passage to manhood is done when your balls drop...

Just like when women drop an egg for the first time...

Numlock,

A rite of passage is usually defined as a group activity. In todays culture i think the right of passage is when you have your first drug induced group sex experience.

Oh, just tell them to suck it up and deal with it. Be a man.

Wait, that's what we've been telling them for ages. Can't imagine why it didn't work...

Hopefully my two-year-old nephew will grow up in a culture with a more realistic approach to these issues.

i'm pretty sure they'll start blaming men for their own issues soon as well. Things like that go hand in hand.

i like how this article points out that some people overlook mens issues because of some peoples mind set in relation to feminism. a lot of times these feminists are just as sexist as the men who place these roles on them, and it can be destructive in society when we don't respect everybodys biology. testosterone can be just as big a burden as estrogen!

Too many boys growing up without dads these days, if you ask me. Dads that don't stick around, dads that are forced out of their children's lives in divorce court, dads that grew up without dads of their own.

America now has generational emasculation. You can't expect a mother to provide a boy everything he needs to be a man. You can't even expect mommy's latest boyfriend to. I've never been a family-values, fundamentalist type but now that I have kids of my own I definitely see where they're coming from.

The boys in our country ARE lost. Parents are not teaching them to speak up and be strong. They are either the BULLIED or the BULLY themself.

It's no wonder...most boys in this day have no father figure to be found. I will do my best to raise my son to be a well-rounded man, & not to ever be too proud or scared to come to me to advice/support.

Very interesting subject that has been neglected by our society and Media in basically all directions. There are not only family spiritual, psychological values involved in this discussion but also the financial ones. The true fact is that both sides, girls and boys have their own issues that unfairly play against each other instead in their favor. Then there are our poor educational system and Media all contributing the screw things even more. Good discussion post through!

As a 20 yr old male I can honestly say that the public education completely squashes a boy's curiosity and confidence and most guys just give up and say screw it. I'm not really for gender-separate schools but it's true boys and girls learn very differently, and school as an institution and especially how it's done today more caters to girls. You can't expect adolescent boys to sit in a chair all day listening to boring teachers. So when they get rowdy (by their nature) they get reprimanded but girls who sit in their chairs are praised. Plus our politically correct culture discourages competition which boys thrive upon and girls less so. I remember running the mile for gym back in grade school every year and trying to beat out all the other boys in my class so I could be cool. These days if gym hasn't already been cut they get rid of the mile and the pacer because they don't want to hurt anyone's feelings if they lose. Some wussbag culture we live in.

The other problem with boys that's been mentioned is too many growing up without fathers. Well-intentioned mothers teach them to be nice and sweet and put a woman first in everything and as a result most women end up wearing the pants in the relationship and they have no attraction for 99% of guys because guys are like this. But it is against a boys nature to be this stuff so they become confused, feel inadequate, become depressed and suicidal etc.. All they need to do to right the situation is to man up and take their balls back....but most never will or even know that option is available.

Oh man up already.

There are a lot of interesting ideas here, but I still maintain that the real issue is that everyone is looking for Mr. Mrs. Perfect, and are not willing or capable of communicating with each other and compromising on things...

I mean, norfair18 points out the issue of boys growing up without a father and all of the things that come with that, but here I am having the same issues and my parents were together (are still together) when I was growing up... and my dad was an excellent father figure (fishing, camping, little league, baseball games... he did it all with me on a regular basis, and he taught me things while we did it)... I am very fortunate in that respect, but I still have the same issues being discussed here... I would consider my self very masculine as well... I work on cars, fish, repair and build things, workout, etc... but I was also raised to be chivalrous and polite which I guess comes across as boring... woman always go for the boisterous idiot that spouts BS all night long... if you try and hold an intelligent conversation it is considered boring or is not a conversation because only one person talks and it is dropped... you can ask questions and they talk and talk and give you two edge wise words every five minutes after you try and get them out for three before the continue rambling... its ridiculous

I personally have no problem meeting woman, I can make them laugh when they pause long enough... I do not know... I used to go on dates continuously, at least once or twice a week, I have been on literally hundreds, I can count on my fingers how many second dates I have been on, and I have only had two actual relationships... the above scenarios always ensue though, even in relationships, and eventually I gave up... every once in a while I will meet a girl that I think is interesting enough to take out on a date these days, but I am always wrong, I have meet a handful of woman that stick by there guys side and know how to have conversations (I might be content if I could just find one that could just have a conversation again)... and they have all been married, so they do exist, there just so rare it is ridiculous... and all unavailable...

I think this is relevant

http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/today.asp

That's ridiculous, I've never seen boys or "male issues" ignored by US culture.

......???...!!

Boys and men issues are ignored in our culture, while media promotes the notion boys and men are stupid, lazy, violent and abusive and girls and women are smart, hard workers and victims. This is simply not true. Our boys are at grater risk of suicide, school dropout, labeled with ADD/ADHD issues, brainwashed to be feminine. Millions of dollars in federal funds are available for women issues but anyone challenges the lack of funds for boys and men issues are attacked as women repressors. Dear President Obama, where is the gender equality? WHERE IS THE CONCIL FOR BOYS AND MEN?
We must address these issues now before it's too late.