Universities: Pink Collar Ghettos?

Interesting exchange in the female blogosphere, where two docs effectively debate what's been happening to men in an increasingly feminized society.

Dr. Melissa seems to have started it:

What the world needs more of is manly men. I've blogged about this before, but it's worth repeating. A girlfriend of mine told me that her three best girlfriends all have husbands that stay home while their wives work and the men sit around complaining about their wives.

Gee, what a concept. Seems some professional women like Dr. Melissa are getting tired of what kind of men the gender feminazis have succeeded in creating: an awful lot of passive wussies. Like the alleged Chinese proverb more or less says, don't wish too hard for something. You just might get it.

She continues:

Societally, it seems like men don't value or seem to be valued for manliness. A strong, hard-working, driven guy has been replaced with a soft, unmotivated, aimless man who can't make a declarative sentence or find the will to do what needs to be done. Basically, too many men have become pansies. Gay men need to butch up, too.

Somewhere between the hypermasculinity of Islamofascism and the gang culture on one hand and the effete softness of the bitchy out-of-work, tears in his beer dude on the other, there's a balance. To me, the honor, strength and drive shown by men who've been through military training serves as a good model of manly behavior.

Butch up. There you go. I'd have expressed this somewhat differently. But in this fashionably anti-het age in which we live, you get the point.

Dr. Helen, (spousal unit of Instapundit) on the other hand, gives the un-fairer sex a little more credit for creative thinking:

Have men become "pansies" (your words, not mine) using this strategy? I don't think so. They have become strategic. This is different than aimless. Aimless suggests no purpose. Men may look aimless but underneath it all they actually have a purpose--to protect themselves from a society that considers men responsible for the welfare of women and children but offers them little or nothing in return. Who can blame them?

Well, yeah. But "The Other Side" (blogger Kim du Toit) agrees with 'em both. Sort of:

I agree with both of them, a little—although I think Helen gives men too much credit for being devious and scheming—kinda like women...

You want to know why CEOs earn so much these days? It’s because of all the “teaming” and diversified responsibility which takes place in their corporations—to the point where only the “C” class can actually make decisions.

It’s the corporate version of kids’ soccer matches where nobody keeps score, lest the losers get their feelings hurt.

Here’s where the fun begins, by the way. I don’t think that men are as subtle or as perceptive as Dr. Helen thinks they are. They can recognize a game in which the odds have been stacked against them, of course—but I don’t think they work the system as she thinks they do.

What they do is refuse to play.

What’s the point of being ambitious or hard-working, when your efforts will be subsumed in a “task force” or “team” project, and others get the credit for your work? What’s the point of being a man, when all you get from it is scorn from women and from men who behave like women?

Interesting thought, which leads the Kimster to this conclusion:

And if some harpy tells them to “butch up”, they say, “Bite me”.

When women finally do get everything they wanted, I wonder whether they’ll enjoy living in the world they’ve created.

Good question. Which is what got Dr. Helen to the Pink Collar stuff we advertised in our headline. The university system is where today's men start to run into the wimpy, PC crap, since that's where spineless men and feminazis tentatively co-exist, with the feminazis holding the upper hand, so to speak. Real guys are immensely turned off by this environment, yet they're forced to endure it to get the necessary credentials, dealing with loads of anti-U.S., anti-capitalist, anti-Western spleen en route. Small wonder why guys hate school from K-8 thru post-graduate. It's insulting, demeaning, and stupid to put up with the idiotic sideshows while attempting to pursue education and fathom a career path. Plus, it's entirely too girly.

Dr. Helen describes one male's path around this nonsense to bolster her argument:

For example, I recently talked with my accountant, a man who is getting an advanced degree online. He didn't want to go to a PC university and sit through a bunch of professors putting down his gender or having him do ridiculous amounts of tedious and inefficient paperwork that he found boring. Instead, he is taking classes that he enjoys on his schedule. The male nurse at my doctor's office is getting his degree online because he doesn't want to deal with the "crap" that a regular university expects students to listen to on an ongoing basis. He stated that he simply reads the material and takes the tests and doesn't have to deal with the PC milieu that would leave him annoyed and disgruntled. Both of these men have successful careers and while I don't know what they make, I bet it is plenty enough to pay for whatever lifestyle they want to enjoy.

She concludes this round by stating:

It's no wonder universities are turning into pink collar ghettos. Men are finding other avenues that are fulfilling and fit in with their lifestyle. With the rise of technology and alternative ways to make a living and live one's lifestyle, I have no doubt that most men will find what works for them.

This is actually a pretty civil, provocative little debate. Kim and the Doctors essentially agree on the point. Real, actual men have had it up to here with liberal, PC, male-bashing nonsense, whether in the corporate or university environment. It's axiomatic to them that this is all crap. But our panelists are not quite in agreement as to how or in what manner the men are really dealing with it. Have they bought in? Are they subversive? Have they figured out how to get their own way without tipping their collective hand?

Being an actual real man with the wreckage of an intellectual career well behind me, I can help. Men DO know what they're doing. Teddy Roosevelt said it best: Speak softly and carry a big stick.

Maybe better still, to paraphrase the English meaning behind a famous (and bogus) legal Latin cliche: Never let the bitches wear you down.

Or, best of all, op. cit. above in the contemporary idiom: Bite me.

And have a nice day.