Crisis. The first thing to know about "crisis" in our time, is that it's often used in rhetoric to reaffirm current power hierarchies. Especially in right wing rhetoric. How that works and more about this "crisis" is what you'll find in this post.
source: YouTube
If you've been paying attention, you'll know that the far right does this miraculous mental gymnastic where their enemies are both weak and threatening at the same time. When homosexuals were even more marginalized than they are now, when they were still locked away in their closets, the conservative political right made them out to be an existential threat to the nation, the family and the "American way of life". LGBTQ+ people are a threat, especially transgenders, feminists are a threat, brown people are a threat... All the marginalized demographic groups are threatening the white man. Today's extreme versions of these irrational fears have taken the form of "trans people are child groomers" and "brown people are committing 'white genocide'". This fear of whites being replaced with non-whites (replacement theory) might just as well be called a "crisis of whiteness". And the women, the feminists? Well, they are responsible for killing manhood.
Just type in "crisis of masculinity" in the Google search-bar and you'll be met with more than 10 million hits with a conversation between Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro, two of the far right's darlings, titled "The Current Crisis of Masculinity", at the very top. If you need further proof of the popularity of this topic, just look at the success of people like Andrew Tate, who teach young men how to be "manly" and conquer women. If you've read any of my numerous posts on the rise of fascism, you'll know that fascism is, essentially, the conservatives' love for hierarchy on steroids. Or, in the case of the masculinity crisis, on testosterone. This is what I meant in the introduction of this post: identifying a (presumed) crisis allows for the identification of perpetrators of the crisis, which are women and feminists in this case, LGBTQ+ people, non-whites, communists, neo-Marxists and Jews in other cases.
This rhetoric of crisis also allows the effective rulers in the hierarchy of the status-quo (whites, men, capitalists) to assume the role of victims. Whites are under threat! Masculinity is under threat! Capitalism is under threat! So brown people, feminists, LGBTQ+ people (especially the transgenders!), socialists and other leftists or progressives need to be stopped at all costs! The rhetoric is not only dumb, but based in fear; once again the phrase "when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression" comes to mind. This crisis-rhetoric is based in a feverish compulsion to protect the traditional power-hierarchies of yesteryear, when while males ruled absolutely over women and non-whites. They. Fear. Change.
So, is this crisis all made up then? Not really. There are statistics that seem to indicate there's something going on that's threatening men. Sure, men commit 90 percent of homicides, but they also represent almost 80 percent of the victims. Men have shorter life-spans than women. Men are far more likely to commit suicide. That's all true. But are women, feminists or transgenders to blame? Hell no. The fact of the matter is that traditional masculine gender roles are to blame. The traditional masculine man is a provider; he works while the wive stays at home to take care of the children and do the cooking. And that was economically justified when most of the work took advantage of men's biologically determined superior strength. But in the modern postindustrial economy traditional feminine traits, like social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus, are valued more.
“The scientific evidence,” notes Tyler Cowen for Bloomberg, “shows that women have on average stronger skills in empathy, communication, emotion recognition and verbal expression, and corporate America is valuing those qualities.” As British sociologist David Morgan notes, economical changes tend to go hand in hand with societal shifts in behavior and attitude. Many such recent changes—such as the rising divorce rates (most often initiated by women), challenge to a dominant heterosexual model, and the rise of single-parent households (most often headed by women)--undermine or disrupt traditional masculine roles and identities.
source: Psychology Today
Men are told to not cry and to "man up" when they're hurt, which leads to them not seeking help when they need to. Their traditional role of providing for wive and children is indeed under threat, not by the marginalized scapegoats of right wing rhetoric, but by the changing socioeconomic landscape men find themselves in. And suicides, as well as discrimination, go up in hard economic times. Combine that with the uncertainty and confusion felt by so many young men who are concentrated in modern online groups like MGTOWs and Incels, it's no wonder male suicides are skyrocketing. And maybe, just maybe, the easy access to firearms has something to do with it as well... But there you go: that's just another change not welcomed by the traditionalists. If anything, this question of a "crisis of masculinity" is complex, far too complex to be captured by the simplistic and hateful rhetoric from the extreme right, or, for that matter, by the extreme virtue-signaling from hypocritical elitist liberals. That's what I have to say for now; please watch the below linked video in which another angle on this question is explored.
Why We Blame Women for The Masculinity Crisis
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