21st Century Man: Men Without Cause
Richard Heasman
The commercial emancipation of women in 1950’s America, saw edgy, iconic adverts portraying women smoking, drinking and generally spending their own money. The swinging-sixties unified both genders with fashion and ‘individuality’, placing the importance of personal happiness with individual expression. Homosexuals in the 80’s saw companies like Calvin Klein excelling in associating their more expensive, ‘fringe element’, products with the company and the obvious association with HIV.
And today, a president with an abysmal voting record was elected into power by selling his ethnicity as a rejection of the current established white elite. This achievement earned Barack Obama a prestige marketing award, beating Google and Microsoft. The secret to marketing, it seems, is advertising a product as an experience, or creating that experience to fundamentally sell a product. The same is quite applicable to gender roles.
Throughout history, men have always been insecure about women’s 'intoxicating' presence. Entire orders and institutions were erected aggressively in the face of women to let them know that their place was below men. These institutions were normally referred to as ‘Religions’ or ‘Corporations’. But recently, it seems the ‘progression’ of women in society has led to men joining them as consumer citizens, where civil liberties are of no importance.
George Carlin, in one of his infamous rants, describes women as victims in the face of stupendous patriarchy, referring to the only ‘true thing’ all men know: “that women are crazy.” “They are crazy because of what men do to them and have done to them since the dawn of time.” And he is quite right. George continues to describe the mind-boggling array of beauty products women now feel is necessary to attract these quite stupid oaths.
The role of man in western society has changed dramatically over the last few decades. Masculinity is, quite frankly, on its way out. Society has no need for hunter gatherers and protectors, nor does it really have any room for patriarchal arrogance. People are changing, their attitudes less restricting. The sun is setting over a society less interested in keeping particular groups of people down, because quite frankly, the greater the number of customers, the greater amount of money there is to be made.
But how the world has changed George. We now live in the realm of the puppet king David Beckham and his internationally acclaimed diplomatic status. He is the man of the 21st century, weighing in at a cool 180 pounds, which dramatically increases when all accessories are added.
Women do not want testosterone fuelled scruffs, they want handy, practical and yet stylishly sensitive beings that fit in to their incredibly busy lives. They want a sex god, a chef and a romantic, and they can get it, because they have the right to. And what do men want? The exact same, if not more. There are few things you can buy now that do not have ‘added options’ or the opportunity to ‘personally customize’; we are aggressively persuaded that choice equals happiness.
“Why not try a dating website?" You can personally customise your search and find happiness everlasting. What is the primary problem with this? You, yourself, describe who you are with your own choice of picture. My friend once told me quite an ingenious new method of dating he had thought up: “Why don’t we just describe all our negative qualities to begin with? Then, if the person is still interested, the nightmares are already known".
Maybe the issue lies with relationships today? Why do we even pursue relationships? We are conveniently invested into personal fulfilment, and educated in how to achieve that one objective. You can have what you want, whenever you want it, you just have to believe in yourself to get it. But what exactly is it that we want from life?
The pressure that weighs down on individuals in society today, is enormous. Insecurity is played upon extensively, by teams of men and women who pursue careers, deemed as a worthy objective that reflect the get up and go character they have developed. Perfection and failure are the only two options left; one apparently leads to loneliness and the other, well, to loneliness.
Human relationships are hardly successful achievements; a recent study investigating sex between couples concluded that partners today find it hard to have sex on a regular basis. Why, they ask? Because ‘smart phones and tablets have invaded the bedroom’, people are too busy ‘checking emails and browsing social media to have sex.’ You were right Dostoyevsky; we really are a boring bunch. We are gradually turning into Pandas.
Recently a nationwide debate reignited the unification of western women and men in the face of the oppressive Hijab. The BBC, Channel 4 and ITV rolled out the best the west had to offer, all arguing against the Hijab, declaring it patriarchal, offensive and undeniably sexist.
They felt so very free in their stylish and empowering outfits. ‘The Hijab is a uniform used to oppress women, to suit the men that placed it there’ they cried; ‘It should be banned, to free those who are forced to wear it’, they said, with a flick of the hair. I don’t think any of them really understood what they were saying. And why should they?
They have been sold their rights for as much as the garments that so beautifully grace their shoulders. It is easy to imagine a feeling of virtuous freedom when such an extreme is placed as the alternative; much like Liberalism in general. What value you place upon things in life defines your ideals of freedom. ‘They should be allowed to decide what they want to wear’. Freedom, ladies and gentlemen, is in what you choose to buy.
There are, however, comforting notions of bleak depression that are shared by all. Women are still generally not paid as much as their male colleagues in the workplace. Employers are still very confused in how to accept the fact that women have babies and men do not; while sexual harassment and rape in general is still a crime whereby women are normally the victim. I don’t think it really matters what you wear, we still need to sit down with our sons and educate them in co-existing alongside people that attract us.
However; poverty, crime and economic slavery are non-gender specific fatalities of a bigger picture that unify us all, because none of us have the right to escape it. Meaningless debates against extremes of alien cultures do not benefit anyone besides those who want us to think it’s the real alternative. Of course it’s oppressive, of course it’s ridiculous, but are we really the ones to sit on our civilised hills, sipping our morally righteous cocktails and laughing like a couple of Aryans on a colourful poster? I think not.
So now women can buy and wear all they like, they can even choose their own partner, but women still remain a minority in the defining institutions of power: business and politics. So why are women not angrier than ever before? The enemy remains the same; white, privately educated males.
The opportunity to become a member of this elite club is, according to them, open to all. You just have to achieve it. But with falling educational standards in our public schools, a rising cost of living and a decline in social funding, I don’t think that is a very reasonable thing to believe. But what of the 21st century man? Just as hopeless as the 21st century woman. At least we both look great though.
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