Has Feminism Hurt Black Men and Our Relationships With Them?

. 10/06/2011 . 4 Comments

 

William J. Bennett, a contributor writer to CNN, recently penned an article entitled  “Why Men Are In Trouble.” The article acknowledged the fact that modern American women are more educated, more successful and apparently more ambitious than their male counterparts.

Mr. Bennett provided some interesting statistics:

  • In 1970, men earned 60% of all college degrees. In 1980, the figure fell to 50%, by 2006 it was 43%. Women now surpass men in college degrees by almost three to two.
  • Women’s earnings grew 44% in real dollars from 1970 to 2007, compared with 6% growth for men.
  • In 1950, 5% of men at the prime working age were unemployed. As of last year, 20% were not working, the highest ever recorded. Men still maintain a majority of the highest paid and most powerful occupations, but women are catching them and will soon be passing them if this trend continues.
  • Men are more distant from a family or their children then they have ever been. The out-of-wedlock birthrate is more than 40% in America. In 1960, only 11% of children in the U.S. lived apart from their fathers. In 2010, that share had risen to 27%. [The numbers are even more grim for Black children. Morehouse College’s Turning the Corner on Father Absence in Black America reports that “80 percent of all African-American children will spend part of their childhood living apart from their fathers.”]
  • Men are also less religious than ever before. According to Gallup polling, 39% of men reported attending church regularly in 2010, compared to 47% of women.

Hanna Rosin, author of the controversial 2010 Atlantic article “The End of Men,” shared her thoughts on the gender role reversal being witnessed in America.  “Man has been the dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind. But for the first time in human history, that is changing—and with shocking speed,” writes Rosin. She notes that the changes in American culture from manufacturing and farming (which required brawn), to technology and business (which require brains), has “catapulted women to the top of the work force, leaving men in their dust.”

Would this not mean that women are inherently smarter than men, but were intentionally kept ignorant so that men could feel superior?

My response is a resounding “yes.”

A few days ago I watched a Jane Austen movie entitled Mansfield Park. Set in the early 1800s, the heroine of the movie is a poor girl sent to live with wealthy relatives in England. Though they did not treat her as an equal, she is provided with a comfortable living and the opportunity to socialize with men of means. Having the opportunity to make a “good” marriage was important, as at that time it was the sole way young women could assure her survival.

An avid reader and talented writer with the skill to use words in a surprisingly colorful manner, Fanny Price is greatly admired by the youngest son of her benefactor. In one scene young Edwin explains to his father “Fanny has a voracious mind Father, as hungry as any mans.” In other words, a woman’s intelligence is compared to that of a man – the benchmark for academic accomplishment, brilliance with language and even the ability to learn period. This smug belief in inherent male superiority is at the core of men’s current troubles in American society.

Hanna Rosin Asks: Are Women Leaving Men Behind?

The problem of immaturity in males, loss of focus, dearth of accomplishment and confusion about what it means to be a man are recognized problems in Black America. However, these issues permeate society as a whole, without regard to race. Young men in general are lagging in education, employment and accomplishment.

“Today, 18-to- 34-year-old men spend more time playing video games a day than 12-to- 17-year-old boys. While women are graduating college and finding good jobs, too many men are not going to work, not getting married and not raising families. Women are beginning to take the place of men in many ways. This has led some to ask: do we even need men?” writes Mr. Bennett.

In the Black community, men place blame for their failures on feminism. Reportedly, back in the days when women knew their role and their place, men had no problems being men. These Black men are angry, believing that Black women’s anxiousness to prove that they don’t need a man has removed male motivation to do much of anything of merit; they have no reason to try.  Such sentiments are common amongst Black men, and shameful in my eyes.

What such beliefs express is a weakness of character, a neediness, that is quite unattractive. If a woman feeling confident, strong and powerful makes you feel insecure, weak and powerless, your manhood was never really yours in the first place. Therefore, your figurative loss of it is no loss at all.  One cannot lose something they never had.

It it the responsibility of Black women to build up Black men? Would not a real man establish his sense of manhood on his own merit?What part of this equation rests solely on the head and shoulders of Black men? Can men not determine what makes them men without pointing to the feminine and saying “we as men are the opposite of that!?”

Black Women Are Eager to Accept Personal Blame and Responsibility For Male Failure

Only Black women are anxious to assume all blame for men’s failings. Only Black women think it their responsibility to fix men and help men and support men. Only Black women think it is appropriate for them to dull their light and reduce the speed of their forward progress in order to “let men be men.” Only Black women think that by making themselves small, less and insignificant they can make their man feel better about himself.

The most vocal opponents to feminism and its alleged negative effect on manhood is Black women.

In reality, feminism has done nothing to HARM men. Men see it as something negative because it advanced women’s causes. For the first time in history women focused on and stood up for themselves, their wants, their needs, their lives. And men can’t stand it because they are used to being considered first, their needs being met by women without question, their thoughts and opinions taken as fact by uneducated unsophisticated females that look on them in awe.

My assessment of these attitudes are borne out in fact.

(continued on page two below)

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15 Votes

Deborrah

Veteran social researcher, relationship advice columnist, author and radio host. Author of hundreds of articles on American and black culture, gender issues, singles, dating and relationships. Author of "Sucka Free Love!" , "The 24 Types of Suckas to Avoid," "The Black Church - Where Women Pray and Men Pray," and "Why Vegan is the New Black" all available on Amazon.Com. Her unique voice and insightful commentary have delighted fans and riled haters for 20 years. Read her stuff on SurvivingDating.Com and AskHeartBeat.Com.

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