(Article changed on January 11, 2014 at 19:29)
Ever since the rise of second-wave feminism in the 1960s and 1970s, many feminists -- including not only female feminists but also male feminists as well -- have in effect been singing the song "Why Can't a Man Be More Like a Woman?"
At times, they may sing a variant of this song: "Why Can't a Boy Be More Like a Girl?"
Both men and women have observed that girls mature faster than boys do. Good for girls! Oftentimes, girls are more sensitive and express their feelings more readily than boys do. Good for girls!
Nevertheless, despite these widespread observations, it does not seem to me to be a good idea to compare boys' development to girls' development as though girls were the gold standard by which to judge boys.
However, in her tightly constructed argument in "American men's hidden crisis: They need more friends" at Salon Magazine online (dated
Now, I would say that second-wave feminism in the 1960s and 1970s did help precipitate a male identity crisis. This is why the title of Wade's article "American men's hidden crisis" caught my attention. While the subtitle of her article ("They need more friends") might sound as though she is going to argue against men being "loners," it turns out that she really means that men need more friendships of the sort that women commonly cultivate with other women. "Why Can't a Man Be More Like a Woman?"
Wade works with terminology that she credits to Geoffrey Greif: shoulder-to-shoulder friendships and face-to-face friendships.
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