Men’s Anger and the Brutal Contradictions of Masculinity
Why men often default to rage when they are challenged by women
Who men are collectively, and how we got to the place we are now is not a pretty story. We are suspended, rudderless, between our long history of male privilege and the newer, more equitable masculinities emerging from decades of social and economic upheaval. For this generation of men, there will be no quick or easy way forward. It will take generations for us to free ourselves from what was done to us, by us, for us, and through us, in the name of traditional American masculinity.
Put simply, how American men perform masculinity is killing us and all those whose lives we impact. Our mothers, wives, daughters, sons, our entire communities, men and women we have never met and will never meet are all paying a terrible price. Which is why this conversation about being a man has to happen. If we cannot do this for ourselves, straddling what was and what is to come, uncertain of simple moral imperatives, angry and defensive, then we must do this for those we love. We must find the courage to shift this culture for those close to us, for our children and grandchildren, who deserve to grow up in a world free of the brutal inequality that we, by our collective indecision, are maintaining.
