In Which I Attempt to Write About Gender

This is almost certainly way over my head, but I'd like to share some general musings on gender roles in modern American culture. I freely admit that I am rather out of practice in the art of writing, and my own thoughts on this issue have not completely coalesced at this point, so forgive any inadequacies of this post, as I am attempting to make a habit of writing about random topics that flit through my mind. (I suppose I might have done better to stick to what I know and write about dinosaurs or something, but you never get better unless you push yourself, so here we are.)

Traditional gender roles have been in a state of transition for some time now, particularly over the course of the last century. Whatever its shortcomings, real or perceived, the feminist movement does in fact deserve much of the credit for balancing the fortunes of the two sexes. In fact, I have increasingly discovered that the current form of feminism that's in vogue amongst my generation conforms rather closely to my idea of gender equality (though of course no ideology is one-size-fits-all, and I am disappointed that the current-wave feminism seems to fail to recognize that most of its detractors are actually reacting previous, more extremist waves that they are too reluctant to distance themselves from).

In my own life situation, I have currently accepted the position of stay-at-home husband while my wife provides for us. Though this is partly due to circumstance, we have long taken it as a point of fact that even were I to have a steady income, it would likely always be supplemental to hers, as "medical professional" tends to trump many others careers. One seems to come across couples like us with increasing regularity these days. One of the inspirations for this piece was a series of TED talks I recently watched which dealt with these issues (and if you will indulge me, I will be freely referencing them from here on out. Make sure to click the links as I provide them!)

In Hannah Rosin's talk New Data on the Rise of Women, the speaker examines how the fundamental shift from a labor-based to a service-based economy has drastically altered the job market. Where once a strong body and a good work ethic were the extent of the qualifications for the average job, personal strength has been supplanted by education, networking, interpersonal social skills, and multitasking. On the whole, this shift has favored women while beginning to leave men lagging behind. With this shift in preferred workplace aptitude comes  a shift in the economic potential for young men and women, and thus a shift in attitudes towards their ideal home structure. According to Rosin, women are now more likely to expect to assume the role of primary wage earner while their husbands (if they even take on at all) work part-time or even stay at home.

Why are men lagging behind though? Why not a shift towards simple equality? While one can argue for (or against) inherent gender traits that affect aptitude, Philip Zimbardo (in The Demise of Guys?) argues that in any case, the aforementioned critical interpersonal skills required for the modern public sphere have declined to artificially low levels among young men. This group has seen a rise in social awkwardness: a basic lack of understanding of the verbal and nonverbal rules and skills that enable comfortable, healthy interaction with other people. Zimbardo attributes this to what he calls "Arousal Addiction", that is to say, addiction to empty novelty (not necessarily though certainly including sexual arousal). Arousal addiction is characterized by excessive consumption of video games, internet, and pornography, all of which offer easy reward with minimal effort. This "digital re-wiring of the brain" in favor of these cheap thrills desynchronizes young males from traditional social settings. Their predilection towards electronic, active, and immediate forms of consumption leaves them ill suited for traditional school classes, which are analog, static, and passive. Relationships (both romantic and otherwise) also suffer, as they tend to occur subtly and gradually, as opposed to the obvious and fast-paced entertainment they have acclimated themselves to.

How to deal with these changing climates? While there may be something to be said for changing classroom environments, I think the greatest good can be accomplished in the realm of popular media. While Colin Stokes' talk on How Movies Teach Manhood seemed a little disorganized, it touched on a few points I am passionate about, and got me thinking about other topics as well; so while I posted the link there, know that most of what I'm saying is more inspired by his talk than directly referencing it. In fact, much of what I'm going to mention is more aligned with Anita Sarkeesian's videos, the Lego series in particular (part 1 here and part 2 here). While gender roles have always had unequal portrayals in popular media, the case could be made that they at least tended to prepare one for the expectations of the time. With the changing social fabric, the pop culture seems to have some trouble in keeping up. While the portrayal of females has for the most part modeled good interpersonal interaction, that mostly sums up the extent their roles in many movies. Males on the other hand are allowed to do more, but are either portrayed as goofy and immature or gruffly serious, while portraying deeper social interaction as something to be regarded as awkward. Neither would seem to adequately prepare either gender for the current social & economic climate. (Note: while the "warrior princess" type character seems to be on the rise, she tends to be a gruff stoic, and thus essentially a man with boobs as far as characterization is concerned.) Popular media needs to re-evaluate its current definitions of manhood and womanhood to better suit modern times (and parents should do their best to expose their kids to more balanced portrayals of men and women). Colin Stokes offered the "Wizard of Oz" as an example a more well-rounded approach to personalities and group oriented problem solving, without falling back on stereotypes and "chosen one" plot lines (in direct contrast to films such as Stars Wars). I personally would point to "The Avengers" as possibly the best example from this year's crop of movies.

If you haven't clicked on any of those videos up there yet, shame on you for being lazy! Go watch them now! They all cover this topic much more effectively than I ever could. In fact, go ahead and spend the whole rest of the day just watching videos on TED.com if you have the time. It's packed full of fascinating lectures on pretty much every topic you could think of. Let me know what you think about this post! I would enjoy feedback on this stuttering attempt to get back into the practice of writing.