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What really happened to boys?
American Thinker ^ | April 28, 2013 | Bruce Deitrick Price

Posted on 05/07/2013 12:47:29 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice

Four years ago, psychologist Leonard Sax (MD, PhD) wrote a well-received book titled “Boys Adrift.” The doctor tried to answer the question, why have so many young males fallen into passivity and indifference?

Dr. Sax had heard more and more parents complain that their boys stayed indoors most of the time, spent hours on video games, and in general seemed to lack the confidence and esprit de corps that had characterized boys throughout history.

“Something scary is happening to boys today,” Sax concluded. “From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere twenty years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically.”

The book’s full title is, “Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men.” Sax lists the five factors right on the cover: “video games, teaching methods, prescription drugs, environmental toxins, devaluation of masculinity.”

It’s worrisome that he seems to like them all. That might be a clue that he has not solved this mystery. Indeed, let’s consider the possibility that none of these theories is the deep answer we want. Let’s start from scratch and consider the things we know for sure.

First of all, critics have often noted that schools seem organized more for girls than for boys. Most boys do not want to be confined to a desk; they would rather be outside playing and competing. Second, not only are boys kept passively inside, they are forced to deal almost the entire day with reading, writing, and arithmetic, probably not their own first choices.

But these factors are historically common. Boys have always been restless at their desks. They have often stared out the window and daydreamed...

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; Education; History
KEYWORDS: chemtrails; childhood; feminists; feminizationofus; flouride; gendergap; k12education; liberalism; males; psychology; tv; vaccines; waronboys
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To: detective

Exactly. “War Against Boys” is one of the most insightful books I’ve ever read.


81 posted on 05/07/2013 3:10:22 PM PDT by RavenATB
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To: MeganC

Women are natural socialists and abhor the thought of rugged individualism.


82 posted on 05/07/2013 3:13:30 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: BruceDeitrickPrice

Because women are well organized by feminists who hate men.

Pray for America to Wake Up


83 posted on 05/07/2013 3:32:42 PM PDT by bray (Surviving to spite Obama)
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To: central_va

“Women are natural socialists and abhor the thought of rugged individualism.”

Not all of us. I’m on FR aren’t I?


84 posted on 05/07/2013 3:36:23 PM PDT by MeganC (You can take my gun when you can grab it with your cold, dead fingers.)
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To: muir_redwoods

You aren’t an old fart who mis-remembers (and I don’t even know you personally, muir_redwoods...

Many of the things that boys were suited for and that prepared them for manhood have been discouraged in society.

Kids aren’t encouraged to go out and play on their own with other kids. It seems like every hour of the day has to be scripted from front to back so there is no time for them to be “boys”.

Being in the Boy Scouts is now looked down on, as belonging to a homophobic organization. And the Boy Scouting that remains is going to be changed very soon.

Tackle football is going to be eventually made unavailable for boys at any level, because girls can’t compete in it, and you can actually hurt yourself playing it via broken bones or concussions.

Soccer is the game of choice, because all kids can play.

In my day, if a kid filled something up with match heads to try and make a firecracker, most adults would roll their eyes. Now they are viewed as fledgling terrorists.

In school, if you act even the least bit rambunctious, they fill you with Ritalin or funnel you into a special class.

I don’t have kids. If I did, I would never let them watch television. I would make a deal with them. You want to get a pilot’s license? Skydive? Scuba? Mountain climb? You name it, you can do it if you really want to, but you cannot watch television.

The portrayal of masculine men as idiots, and the glorification of pussies, if not outright teenage homosexuality as the ideal is appalling to me.

It isn’t just you. Things have changed.


85 posted on 05/07/2013 3:40:50 PM PDT by rlmorel ("We'll drink to good health for them that have it coming." Boss Spearman in Open Range)
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To: BruceDeitrickPrice

What happened?

Beta male politicians discovered appeasing the numerically superior female vote was their ticket to power.

Simple as that.


86 posted on 05/07/2013 3:44:45 PM PDT by papertyger (Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken....)
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To: fr_freak

People will have to stop the TV and movies etc. from setting the standards of decency for them. Women are not ladies and men have been warned for the most part to fear being a gentleman. Opening a door or giving an honest complement can get you in trouble nowadays. I’m a 57 year old female and I honestly still cannot get over women wearing pants in church. The standards have sunk so low for both men and women.


87 posted on 05/07/2013 3:45:10 PM PDT by timeflies
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To: BruceDeitrickPrice
What really happened to boys?

Men/fathers who capitulated while the feminists and the biased school system ran roughshod over them.

88 posted on 05/07/2013 3:45:27 PM PDT by TwelveOfTwenty (Ho, ho, hey, hey, I'm BUYcotting Chick-Fil-A)
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To: PGR88
“The common practice in education now is to treat boys like malfunctioning females.”

That sums it up better than a thousand "studies".

89 posted on 05/07/2013 3:45:40 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Fester Chugabrew

Open it, get it playing and then open another page and keep reading FR.


90 posted on 05/07/2013 3:48:23 PM PDT by B4Ranch (http://www.theycometoamerica.com/)
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To: TwelveOfTwenty
Men/fathers who capitulated while the feminists and the biased school system ran roughshod over them.

What? Do you expect Men/Fathers to revolt because they didn't like the results of a fair election?

91 posted on 05/07/2013 3:51:54 PM PDT by papertyger (Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken....)
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To: papertyger

It boils down to greed. Men for the most part owned those publishing houses that allowed the feminist hags to write those articles for the “ladies magazines” promoting all the stay at home types were losers and unfulfilled.


92 posted on 05/07/2013 3:58:35 PM PDT by timeflies
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To: BruceDeitrickPrice

“econd, not only are boys kept passively inside, they are forced to deal almost the entire day with reading, writing, and arithmetic, probably not their own first choices. “

Wait just a minute. I thought boys were always better in math or science than girls. Now they are telling me boys don’t want to do that? I don’t buy it. If they are not interested then I have a feeling it is because they are not actually learning math or science.


93 posted on 05/07/2013 4:07:38 PM PDT by Morgana (Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: timeflies

“I’m a 57 year old female and I honestly still cannot get over women wearing pants in church.”

I have no problem with females wearing pants in church as long as they are dress pants and clean. Jeans for women or men in church is not okay, as I have seen both.

I really don’t mind it seeing that with some that is all they have. So as long as they are clean and modest I don’t care.


94 posted on 05/07/2013 4:11:04 PM PDT by Morgana (Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: timeflies
It boils down to greed. Men for the most part owned those publishing houses that allowed the feminist hags to write those articles for the “ladies magazines” promoting all the stay at home types were losers and unfulfilled.

where they supposed to spike books that had a clear market?

Stop trying to figure a way to blame men for things women have inflicted on our culture.

95 posted on 05/07/2013 4:12:09 PM PDT by papertyger (Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken....)
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To: papertyger

I’m not blaming all men as a whole. But it was allowed. Just as today the media would have you believe that 80% of America is queer. Back in the 60s when the feminist rags really started , they would have you believe 80% of men were wife beaters. It is allowed.


96 posted on 05/07/2013 4:20:35 PM PDT by timeflies
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To: Blue Ink
When do fathers who used to be married or never bothered to marry step up and take responsibility for abandoning their sons to be raised exclusively by women?

You've never had to go into "family" court with the boat anchor or a Y chromosome around your neck, I take it. Hey, maybe all those guys will man-up, ignore what the man in the long black dress tells him he is allowed to do, ignores the guys with the fine hats and badges who will beat, cage and/or shoot him if he persists in disobeying the judge. Is that the kind of backbone you're waiting to see?

97 posted on 05/07/2013 4:21:52 PM PDT by Orangedog (An optimist is someone who tells you to 'cheer up' when things are going his way)
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To: papertyger
Do you expect Men/Fathers to revolt because they didn't like the results of a fair election?

Are you saying men should just cave in to everything that is done to their sons, on the assumption that they can't do anything about it anyway because women make up the majority of the voters?

98 posted on 05/07/2013 4:22:31 PM PDT by TwelveOfTwenty (Ho, ho, hey, hey, I'm BUYcotting Chick-Fil-A)
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To: Orangedog
You've never had to go into "family" court with the boat anchor or a Y chromosome around your neck, I take it.

Here's what an MRA said about this.

Time for Some Male Bashing of Our Own

He agrees. "You" do take it.

99 posted on 05/07/2013 4:26:18 PM PDT by TwelveOfTwenty (Ho, ho, hey, hey, I'm BUYcotting Chick-Fil-A)
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To: BruceDeitrickPrice

Our boys are rather masculine. Must be their dad’s influence.


100 posted on 05/07/2013 4:39:42 PM PDT by petitfour
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