Kay S. Hymowitz hoping to popularize sexism against unmarried men

Our friend Kay S. Hymowitz has a new book to shill in the WSJ. In an excerpted essay, she theorizes that men have been screwed by women’s advances, not that women’s advances are bad, but kind of! She has helpfully framed it with a word and life phase she made up: “pre-adulthood.”

So you know, the term “pre-adulthood” as she defines includes anyone who is now legally an adult but has failed to get married and make babies. She, like other conservative thinkers, believes this means we’re all screwed and men will just play video games forever and women will just make babies at sperm banks.

What gives, according to Kay?

Ready? Drum roll….

Men do not have to undergo any “feats of strength” rituals anymore these days to prove they are men, so they just refuse to become men.

They needed to demonstrate courage, physical prowess or mastery of the necessary skills. The goal was to prove their competence as protectors and providers. Today, however, with women moving ahead in our advanced economy, husbands and fathers are now optional, and the qualities of character men once needed to play their roles—fortitude, stoicism, courage, fidelity—are obsolete, even a little embarrassing.

This bit of Levi-Straussian literalism sure does bring back the good old days of armchair anthropology, does it not? Maybe if we had guys all agree to compete in at least one episode of “American Gladiators” and hold a public circumcision, we could move on with our lives?

So what’s her conclusion if we can’t make this happen? Total chaos and social breakdown:

Relatively affluent, free of family responsibilities, and entertained by an array of media devoted to his every pleasure, the single young man can live in pig heaven—and often does. Women put up with him for a while, but then in fear and disgust either give up on any idea of a husband and kids or just go to a sperm bank and get the DNA without the troublesome man. But these rational choices on the part of women only serve to legitimize men’s attachment to the sand box. Why should they grow up? No one needs them anyway. There’s nothing they have to do.

Nothing at all! That’s a pretty big diss, men. You are all just wild pigs. IF ONLY YOU WERE MARRIED, no matter what, to whoever it is that has a vagina nearby, you would improve. You are nothing without that vagina, you are just Seth Rogen.

Hymowitz provides zero statistics on how many of these young men are out there asphyxiating under empty potato chip bags. She cites statistics showing only that people are waiting longer to get married, which actually says nothing about what people are doing before getting married, or why they are choosing not to get married. Her only example is Seth Rogen’s character from Knocked Up, and as we all know movies are valid anecdotal examples for hard evidence-challenged arguments about society at large.

Hollywood’s latest trend: promiscuous women are empty people

Before I get to the Roe v. Wade anniversary, here’s a fun little note from the WSJ blog observing the latest trend in Hollywood: young women in movies who are miserable when they have lots of no-strings-attached sex:

Such characters aren’t likely to become feminist icons. Their interest in commitment-free sex typically is fueled  by deep-seated emotional problems (see the 1977 film “Looking for Mr. Goodbar’)–or even potentially fatal medical issues. In “Love and Other Drugs,” [Anne] Hathaway’s character keeps men at arm’s length in part because she has Parkinson’s disease.

Holy shit, that’s some pretty rough stuff. I guess Hollywood is finally getting around to portraying real, complex human problems.

Well, I will do my part too as a woman and learn from this. I resolve to be nicer to guys using bad lines to try to get laid if the reason they’re using those horrible fucking lines is because they’re dying. Or have crippling emotional problems. That’s what the problem was the whole time? I feel kind of bad for hating on those guys so much.

No?