Sorry, Guys: You've Gone the Way of the Dodo

Guys are obsolete, at least in the historical sense: Hanna Rosin
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 2, 2014 2:16 PM CST
Sorry, Guys: You've Gone the Way of the Dodo
   (Shutterstock)

Guys, you're obsolete. Not literally, but as men "as we've historically come to define them—entitled to power, destined for leadership, arrogant, confused by anything that isn't them," Hanna Rosin writes for Time in an excerpt of her book, The End of Men. For one thing, the traditional "male breadwinner" household is being obliterated as an "alpha wife" emerges, particularly in working and middle class families. Female wages are rising as men's fall, and women are nabbing 60% of college degrees. Pair that with the fact that women are becoming more sexually confident, aggressive, and violent, and you're left with men that are simply "outmoded," Rosin writes.

So what does that mean? Well, basically it's "the end of men" as we've known them for 40,000 years, Rosin argues, but never fear, guys: "Obsolete does not mean worthless. We don’t have to turn men into eunuchs. We can keep whatever we like about manhood but adjust the parts of the definition that are keeping men back," she explains. And if you're wondering what the world looks like after "the end of men," Rosin imagines something like this: "If [my son] chooses to take his kids to a playground at 3 in the afternoon on a Tuesday, no one will look at him funny ... they will just walk on by and not think anything of it at all. He can be his own lovely obnoxious self and also be at home in a new world." Click for her full column. (More opinion stories.)

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