YOUNG MEN NOWADAYS
Young men are growing up amid a profound change in the expectations surrounding masculinity, sexuality, and relationships with women, but the cultural guidance they receive hasn't necessarily caught up with those changes. They encounter a great deal of information about consent, misogyny, gender equality, emotional intelligence, sexual harassment, pornography, and the history of women's oppression. Much of this information is important. Yet knowing that these subjects matter doesn't automatically teach someone how to navigate an actual encounter with another person. A young man may genuinely want to treat women well and still feel anxious about saying the wrong thing, misunderstanding a signal, appearing creepy, or being judged for a thought or impulse he doesn't fully understand himself. Let's unpack a few dimensions of this. 1. The collapse of an old script for masculinity For generations, boys were often given a relatively straightforward, if deeply flawed, socia...