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Are American boys getting stupider everyday?

Jonathan Bailey

Well-Known Member
Why are they falling behind in academics and in college attendance? Is there a gross lack of a father in the home? Personally, I think the demise of an all-male youth organization as the Boy Scouts is not helping matters either. We have lost the strong old value that the MAN is the economic provider for the family. Academic achievement and career success is crucial to this. Often successful sons were pushed hard by their parents.
Is the public school system failing our nation's male youth? I hear the two-parent family is dying.

Loss of manufacturing, the demise of the infrastructure and the reduction of traditional male trades (carpenter, construction heavy equipment operator, woodworker, machinist) doesn't help.

Male youth need a beacon of hope, a guiding light.
 
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Jonathan Bailey

Well-Known Member
A modest proposal to those who care and have wherewithal:


The founding of a new group for America's male youth:

Beacon Boys of America (BBA)

"a guiding light for the successful manhood of tomorrow"


An all-male youth organization, not-for-profit, that inspires boys (Beacon Boys, its members) to achieve and become productive members of society. Modeled on scouting with members in non-paramilitary uniforms. A host of indoors and outdoors activities of interest to boys. Male bonding. Encouragement. Discipline. Develops good character. Non-faith based. Good citizenship. Constitutional values. American values. Work ethics. Non-discriminatory in regards to sexual orientation. Adult leaders called "Beacons of Hope", or Beacons, for short). Discourages smoking, violent behavior, drugs, alcohol use and hate speech.

The lighthouse could be its icon.
 

Jonathan Bailey

Well-Known Member
Traditions change. There is nothing natural about the male as provider.
What is the MALE role then in nature beyond sperm dispenser?

Look at the wolf family. Watch Disney's The Legend of Lobo.

Men of the human species need to be the alpha male wolf of the family.

The man (wolf male) went out and hunted the meat for his family. The woman (wolf b_tch) stayed in her home (cave den) with her children (litter of wolf pups).
 
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We Never Know

No Slack
What is the MALE role then in nature beyond sperm dispenser?

Look at the wolf family. Watch Disney's The Legend of Lobo.

Men of the human species need to be the alpha male wolf of the family.

The man (wolf male) went out and hunted the meat for his family. The woman (wolf b_tch) stayed in her home (cave den) with her children (litter of wolf pups).

Male so to speak wasn't always around. If my memory serves me right female existed first. With the evolution of males arose more diversity, and maybe males only evolved to serve and protect the female. Take ants for example, without the queen the colony is nothing and the males are there to serve and protect the queen.
And as your wolf example, the male is to hunt and protect the female so she can raise the young, thus carry on the species while adding diversity to the mix.
Its just a thought.
 

epronovost

Well-Known Member
Why are they falling behind in academics and in college attendance?

They actually aren't academic grades are fairly stable and attendance is rising. School dropouts have been cut in more than half over the last 40 years. On the international level, the US has been slipping mostly due to lack of investment in public schools and a greater than ever disparity between States. The fact that many other countries have been investing more heavily in education and gotten richer over the years makes competition harder on the international level (Europe is no longer a bloodsoaked continent that it was in the 50's, East Asia has developped tremendously in the 70's, the fall of communism made the international community less divided, etc.). The impression of "falling behind" is also caused by the fact that women have increased their participation in the workforce over the decades. While girls and young women always had a better attendance and higher grades on average than boys and young men wasn't such an issue for futur employment since women used to occupy more part time jobs or have shorter carriers than men, but now occupy almost half of the full time workforce and similarly long carriers.

Loss of manufacturing, the demise of the infrastructure and the reduction of traditional male trades (carpenter, construction heavy equipment operator, woodworker, machinist) doesn't help.

This is the reason why, despite the fact boys and young men attend more school than ever before and maintain an acceptable average, we talk more and more about this issue and invest a lot of time, financial and intellectal resources in solving this issue. Back in the 60's and 70's about nearly half of all boys and young men didn't finish high school, but nobody really cared. There were plenty of low qualification, well payed manufacturing jobs to employ them as well as a good network of professionnal school to train construction workers, farmers and the like. Today, outsourcing and especially automation has cut back the number of good pay low qualification jobs. The still operating and manufacturing jobs are most often in high tech domain which require, even for assembly jobs, more qualification and thus higher diploma.

In resumé, there is nothing specifically wrong with boys and young men. In fact they are more competitive than ever, but the competition has gotten a lot harder both on the international and national level which gives the illusion that they are doing bad.
 
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epronovost

Well-Known Member
What is the MALE role then in nature beyond sperm dispenser?

Look at the wolf family. Watch Disney's The Legend of Lobo.

Men of the human species need to be the alpha male wolf of the family.

The man (wolf male) went out and hunted the meat for his family. The woman (wolf b_tch) stayed in her home (cave den) with her children (litter of wolf pups).

That's actually a debunked myth since the mid 90's. The dominance theory in wolves is false. Their social interractions are actually more supple and complex than that and no mother doesn't exclusively take care of the pups after they are weened which is the 6 to 8th week, yet will be dependant on food provided by their parents and pack mates until they are 6 to 8 month old. Even the scientist who popularised the theory has recanted it. In humans, it's fairly similar too. The idea of mom at home taking care of the kids, while daddy works is a post WWII middle class phenomenon. In our history, the most common caretaker of children were actually elder sibblings and grand-parents while parents were busy working.
 
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McBell

Resident Sourpuss
What is the MALE role then in nature beyond sperm dispenser?
Why does there have to be some sort of universal male role?

Look at the wolf family. Watch Disney's The Legend of Lobo.
Seriously?
After their suicidal lemmings fiasco?
Wow.

Men of the human species need to be the alpha male wolf of the family.
Says who?
why?

The man (wolf male) went out and hunted the meat for his family. The woman (wolf b_tch) stayed in her home (cave den) with her children (litter of wolf pups).
You do know this is the year 2020, right?
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
That's actually a debunked myth since the mid 90's. The dominance theory in wolves is false. Their social interractions are actually more supple and complex than that and no mother doesn't exclusively take care of the pups after they are weened which is the 6 to 8th week, yet will be dependant on food provided by their parents and pack mates until they are 6 to 8 month old. Even the scientist who popularised the theory has recanted it. In humans, it's fairly similar too. The idea of mom at home taking care of the kids, while daddy works is a post WWII middle class phenomenon. In our history, the most common caretaker of children were actually elder sibblings and grand-parents while parents were busy working.
A claim refuted by this documentary:

 

Heyo

Veteran Member
Male youth need a beacon of hope, a guiding light.
Males are doing fine. They still have higher income, they still have greater representation in politics and they sure have higher representation in upper level industry positions.
Calling for "affirmative action" for men is just ridiculous. You do that for those who are really at an disadvantage. It's like tax breaks for the rich.
 

epronovost

Well-Known Member
Males are doing fine. They still have higher income, they still have greater representation in politics and they sure have higher representation in upper level industry positions.
Calling for "affirmative action" for men is just ridiculous. You do that for those who are really at an disadvantage. It's like tax breaks for the rich.

From an economical and political standpoint, men are doing very well, significantly better than women, but from a cultural point of view they did lose their total hegemony in recent years as well as passed through heavy critiques and transformation to what was perceived as their place in society. Feminity has tremendously changed in a 100 years. The way women see themselves and the world has changed and they have changed the world in kind. Masculinity didn't and many men, young and old, are finally starting to realise the depth of changes women have brought in a society in which they used to have nearly complete dominance over. There is a certain "anxiety" surrounding these changing times that can certainly use effort to be dedicated to them.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
From an economical and political standpoint, men are doing very well, significantly better than women, but from a cultural point of view they did lose their total hegemony in recent years as well as passed through heavy critiques and transformation to what was perceived as their place in society. Feminity has tremendously changed in a 100 years. The way women see themselves and the world has changed and they have changed the world in kind. Masculinity didn't and many men, young and old, are finally starting to realise the depth of changes women have brought in a society in which they used to have nearly complete dominance over. There is a certain "anxiety" surrounding these changing times that can certainly use effort to be dedicated to them.
Too often groups think that unearned privileges are rights. The loss of those privileges is an assault on their rights. We see the same things when Christians ability to put up Nativities that exclude all other religions are no longer allowed.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
Feminity has tremendously changed in a 100 years. The way women see themselves and the world has changed and they have changed the world in kind. Masculinity didn't and many men, young and old, are finally starting to realise the depth of changes women have brought in a society in which they used to have nearly complete dominance over.
Yep. As Subduction Zone said, they lost a privilege. Deal with it. If you're outclassed by a woman, maybe you weren't that classy to begin with.
There is a certain "anxiety" surrounding these changing times that can certainly use effort to be dedicated to them.
By retreating to the man cave? Wouldn't it be better to include girls in the club so that the boys can 1. learn from them and 2. learn to live with them?
 

epronovost

Well-Known Member
By retreating to the man cave? Wouldn't it be better to include girls in the club so that the boys can 1. learn from them and 2. learn to live with them?

That's a good strategy and would certainly help, but if there is to be such a thing as a "male identity" in the future like there is one right now, there is also going to be a need for men to redefine themselves "amongst themselves" so to speak too. The two strategy aren't mutually exclusive.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
That's a good strategy and would certainly help, but if there is to be such a thing as a "male identity" in the future like there is one right now, there is also going to be a need for men to redefine themselves "amongst themselves" so to speak too. The two strategy aren't mutually exclusive.
If you value masculinity, yes. I'm to much occupied with my humanity that I have not much time for masculinity.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Males are doing fine. They still have higher income, they still have greater representation in politics and they sure have higher representation in upper level industry positions.
Calling for "affirmative action" for men is just ridiculous. You do that for those who are really at an disadvantage. It's like tax breaks for the rich.
Nope we're outpaced.

Jobs report: Women occupied more jobs than men in December

The Amazon invasion has begun.
 

Jonathan Bailey

Well-Known Member
Male so to speak wasn't always around. If my memory serves me right female existed first. With the evolution of males arose more diversity, and maybe males only evolved to serve and protect the female. Take ants for example, without the queen the colony is nothing and the males are there to serve and protect the queen.
And as your wolf example, the male is to hunt and protect the female so she can raise the young, thus carry on the species while adding diversity to the mix.
Its just a thought.

Of course this disregards the story creation in the Bible, Genesis: Adam followed by Eve. But as an agnostic, that story is a mere possibility. Being male and female means being one of two mutually-necessary life divisions in order to continue a species unless the species continues asexually as do earthworms. I can't envision one "sex" can exist without the other. Living things are either sexual or asexual.
 
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