Are aggressive young women to blame for gender-confused young men?
Tracy Clark-Flory May. 29, 2007 | My god, I nearly had an unhinged keyboard-banging episode reading Laura Sessions Stepp’s piece in today’s Washington Post. Stepp is known for her throwback theories on collegiate mating rituals — namely that young women today are “hooking up” and tuning out emotionally. So, naturally, her study of what it means nowadays to be a man focuses on … young women. Stepp argues that “while catching up with or surpassing men at school and at their first jobs, young women have dumped much of the feminine to embrace the masculine traits that they think represent success.” This has left guys totally gender-confused, she says — the “boy crisis” seems to have segued into the “masculinity crisis.” She reports that young men (note, those who feel especially secure in their manliness and heterosexuality) are increasingly exploring the feminine. They’re supposedly waxing their chests, wearing pastel polos, and hug, rather than high-five, their guy friends. (Newsflas
