Too much estrogen

Once upon a time, women’s rights groups cried foul about cultural and institutional sexism. In other words, society had too much testosterone and not enough estrogen for balance. True enough.
However, one truth I’ve learned about politics is that it tends to swing on a perpetual pendulum. Instead of simply trying to stop the pendulum from swinging, we just change its direction so that it swings the other way.
This has been as true in gender politics as it has with any other form of inequality. We just don’t seem to be able to find that balance. Our solution to inequality repeatedly seems to be reverse inequality.
Consequently, we no longer live in a man’s world. Popular culture, along with the current sociopolitical climate, increasingly awards the power to women.
One of the alphabet networks recently aired a nightly news story about the growing trend of single women choosing motherhood. The underlying message being sent to all of us men, of course, is that we aren’t necessary anymore. Women don’t need or even want us to be part of a family unit. They can do it all themselves without our help or our influence.
While the story did stress the importance of “male influences”—neighbors, teachers, coaches and relatives—the role of a full-time father figure was notably absent.
One message I received from the story is that a man is needed only as a sperm donor, a checkbook (child support and/or alimony) and an occasional “influence,” but not as a parent. Fatherhood is reduced to a specimen in a Petrie dish.
Needless to say, as a man, I found the story disturbing.
My gender is also the butt of jokes around a female-dominant office in which I work. A few of my co-workers take jabs at the male gender by disparagingly referring to us as the “Y Chromosome.”
Fundamentally, this could be considered sexual harassment; but I could never get away with alleging it because I’m a man. Besides, I try to consider the sources of these comments. Every woman in the office who jokes about the “Y Chromosome” has a history of failed relationships; so I figure that the disparaging gender comments are born out of resentment and their own poor choices in life. It isn’t worth making a big stink over, especially since I would have to continue working with these ladies and deal with the interpersonal repercussions of filing a formal complaint.
But that’s really neither here nor there. It isn’t germaine to the issue, so I digress.
The negative messages against men are everywhere these days: At work, around the community, and diffusely in the media, the last of which permeates the very sanctity of a man’s home.
There are no more destructive messages against masculinity than that which exists in the media—be it news, entertainment, popular culture, or advertising.
The next time you guys sit down to watch a football game on television, take note of the number of ads that show men in a disparaging way or in a negative light. Whenever an advertisement includes competing gender roles, the man is overwhelmingly shown as either the weaker of the two, the least intelligent, the most impulsive, and the least civilized. Beer, soda and car commercials are among the worst offenders when it comes to making men look bad, especially in the presence of women.
What these messages do is reinforce some modern idea that women aren’t merely on equal footing with men these days, but are, in fact, superior to them.
Worse yet, a lot of men seem to have bought into the notion that women are superior to them, because that’s what the media tells them on a daily basis; or it’s the message they hear at the office or even at home each and every day.
The idea of female superiority is evident in the language used by some of society’s notable female leaders.
Nancy Lieberman, current coach of a men’s NBA D-League professional developmental basketball team, the Texas Legends, and a former player who broke a gender barrier by playing on a men’s basketball team herself, has been quoted as saying that men are used to having women tell them what to do.
“We’ve told men what to do since the beginning of time,” she has said. “They’re used to getting information from us.”
Lieberman has also been paraphrased as saying that every man in a locker room has taken instruction from a woman since they were a baby: whether it’s from a mom, a wife or a girlfriend. “They need women in every aspect—why not as coach?” she said.
I don’t mean to knock Lieberman specifically for her comments, but what she said is indicative of the notion of gender superiority that exists among a lot of American women today. Political and cultural feminism has done much to push propaganda that men need women, but women don’t need men.
Well, I take exception to this notion. I don’t need my wife; I want her. I don’t need my mother anymore, either, but I want her to remain a part of my life.
I certainly don’t need anybody to tell me what to do or show me how to do things, either. I may want or seek advice from women, but that doesn’t mean I need them to tell or show me what or how to do something. I don’t need direction from either gender, thank you very much. I’m perfectly capable of being directed on my own. I am my own motivator.
Having said that, I concede that women are superior to men in some ways: They are generally better at multi-tasking and parenting than men are. They tend to have a higher pain tolerance than men. They seem better coordinated, which is probably linked to multi-tasking. They tend to possess a natural, innate ability to bond with children, and they are better at nurturing than men are.
Other than that, I fail to see where they are generally superior to men. In fact, I don’t see where either gender has an advantage over the other when it comes to using the gray matter between the ears.
But this isn’t the message that men are hearing these days. They hear the exact opposite. Comments from women like Nancy Lieberman aren’t helping to change this climate, but rather to perpetuate and exacerbate it. Would it not be more constructive and beneficial to tell men that they don’t need women, but they do need to “man up” and take responsibility for themselves and those who depend upon them—their families, most notably? To say that men need women to direct them is akin to saying that women need men to lead them and make decisions for them. We all know how much feminists appreciate male chauvinism, don’t we?
Well, most men don’t appreciate reverse female chauvinism, either.
The whole "battle of the sexes" mantra is old and cliched.
Sure, there are differences between the two. Always have been, and always will be.
But let's stop the antagonism, shall we?
The one-upmanship (or, in this case, one-upwomanship) of the so-called "battle of the sexes" is really a farce that helps no one get over or beyond discrimination and inequality.
Today's culture is overly feminized, overcharged with an overdose of estrogen. The messages being sent to men today rubs their noses in discrimination and inequality. Nothing constructive is said or done to overcome these pitfalls of a free society.
As such, I am growing more skeptical and have become more suspicious that, to militant feminists who control the national women's rights agenda, the cause isn't really about equality at all, but rather revenge.
Retribution is perhaps the strongest, most pungent motivator for people who feel slighted, cheated, used and patronized. Unfortunately, the pendulum of equality suffers most, because it can never achieve true balance in the center when those forces changing its course are intent on using it as a weapon instead of a tool for justice.
Consequently, I can only expect our society and our culture to navigate in a circle of perpetual inequality that masquerades, ironically, as equality.
The burning question remaining in my mind: Will men just lay down and let all of the estrogen suffocate them? Or, will we put our feet down and start demanding some balance? Can there be room left for comparative levels of testosterone?
I'm afraid only you ladies can answer that question.