It's Hard Out Here for a Boy

Matt Walsh's latest at The Daily Wire is about the war on boys.

He wrote a surprisingly good intro:

Our culture is very bad for boys. It's bad for girls, too. It's bad for everyone. But I think we fail to recognize and appreciate the unique struggles that boys face. Partly we fail to recognize it because we are too busy worrying about the Patriarchy's persecution of women. Partly we fail to recognize it because, collectively, we just don't care that much about boys. Partly we fail to recognize it because men are not as likely to talk about their own plight. And partly a man will not talk about it because everyone, even his fellow men, will only laugh at him and downplay the problem.

Exactly.

Men are told about their privilege, but if you look at things honestly you will not see much evidence of this privilege. On the contrary, you will see several profound disadvantages suffered by men in general and boys in particular.

Hmm. Wonder if Walsh has been hit with some reality lately?

1) Our culture preys relentlessly on a boy's weaknesses.

Basically, it's about how women/girls dress all slutty and pr0n is everywhere! Of course that was first.

Let's imagine the world the average 13-year-old boy inhabits. He has long since been exposed to hardcore pornography, and probably watches it regularly. Then puberty hits. His hormones are going haywire. His brain is hardwiring itself to focus obsessively on sex. He cannot really help it. He is now fertile, even as the girls his age, for the most part, are not.

Yeah, Walsh has a lot of people disagreeing there.

He feels the biological impulse to go out and find a sexual partner, though he does not understand this urge and his conception of human sexuality has been perverted and confused by the porn habit he developed in sixth grade.

Aw, yeah. Right. The average 13-year-old boy's sex drive and fantasies would be just fine if not for those dirty videos!

And what is he saying? That 13-year-old boys should be finding 13-year-old girls for sex, but those girls just aren't mature enough?!? Matt adheres to "sex is for procreation in marriage" so I guess he thinks the idea is 13-year-olds marrying and having children?

The boy cannot escape sex. It is all over his computer. All over his phone. All over social media. All over the TV. All over the music he listens to.

And before that it was the brothels in town and seeing/hearing the parents in cramped living conditions, messing around with a neighbor or cousin in the barn, where the animals were also getting it on.

We ask for self-discipline and self-control from the boy while providing him with no tools to develop them.

He got that right.

2) There is a catastrophic lack of male role models.

There sure is, including in media. It's all about girl power now, with bumbling, effeminate, beta, or scummy males thrown in. Oh, and really buff superheroes, cuz boys can become superheroes.

Even the boys who have dads may not have male role models. Very often, despite the father's physical presence, the mother is still the spiritual leader of the household. There are plenty of fathers who stick around but then refuse to take part in their children's moral formation. They are warm bodies taking up space, and perhaps bringing home a paycheck, but they neither lead their families nor provide a worthwhile example to their sons.

Because the only power a married father has is at the voluntary delegation of his wife, and at some point arguing with the wife or trying to lead becomes futile.

And why would men be teachers, coaches, scout leaders, etc. when that opens them up to a lifetime of being at risk for a "#metoo" allegation? No thanks!

3) The education system is designed for girls.

Yes it is. But they still have movements and seminars like women and girls are somehow oppressed in education.

4) Masculinity is denigrated.

It is in men. Women are encouraged to be masculine. The irony of this is that Walsh advocates men marry, but what we call marriage today emasculates men.

Femininity is attacked in our culture as well, but not nearly so explicitly or directly. Nobody would ever call femininity itself "toxic" or "fragile." Nobody talks about female "privilege," even though, as I have demonstrated, females enjoy many unique privileges. Nobody would label all women "dangerous" or "potential monsters to be feared." These are the special denigrations reserved only for manhood.

Walsh probably could have added a lot more, including about how many churches today seem to be off-putting to patriarchs. Kids, young effete men, single mothers, frigid wives find church geared towards them. Not strong husbands and fathers, and definitely not masculine single men, who are likely to be pressured into being free butlers to the single mothers.

Can society recover? Don't count on it. A lot of women and manginas will respond to Walsh's column by saying something about how oppressed women were for so long in history, or something, as if that has any relevant to how boys are treated now.