There are just no words for the amount of hostility spewing forth upon men. It’s even more egregious when it comes from other men.
In an embarrassing piece at the New York Times, science writer James Gorman seems to inject sarcasm — “Could it be that male noses are just so big that they can’t accommodate masks?” — into his claim that mask-slipping is the new “manspreading.” He even attempts bipartisanship: “I realized it’s not a Democratic thing. Or a Republican thing. Or an inaugural thing. It’s a male thing.”
Perhaps this is all meant to soften the blow, but it fails miserably. Gorman is either unaware of or doesn’t care about (not sure which is worse) the plight of today’s males, who have enough on their plate without reading this elitist garbage.
“Something about some men seems to make it difficult to keep that mask where it should be,” he adds, “I am left with the conclusion that man slippage is like manspreading. We — some of us — do it because we are, well, men. And you know what men are like.”
No, Mr. Gorman, please enlighten us. What are men like? You would never deign to write, “You know what women are like.” So why do you feel free to write that about men?
I’ll tell you why. Because Gorman and his ilk have fallen hook, line, and sinker for the feminist narrative that men are lesser beings than women and need to “man up” and enter the modern world. That he would use mask-slipping, the most nongendered topic on the planet (the problem with mask-slipping is glasses, not the sex of the person wearing said glasses) is beyond the pale.
I guess our assault on men is no longer a war on white Republican men. It’s a war on all men that divides the sexes into two made-up categories: the Civilized and the Neanderthals. I’m sure you can guess which sex belongs where.
Naturally, Gorman couldn’t offer a solution to his pretend problem after he finished pontificating. So instead, he put it in the lap of a feminist friend. “Here’s where I should offer a solution,” he writes. “Well, I don’t have one. I’ve diagnosed the problem. I leave it to someone else to figure out what to do about it. Maybe Nancy Pelosi has an idea or two.”
What a wimp.
Suzanne Venker (@SuzanneVenker) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She’s the author of five books and a relationship coach, as well as host of The Suzanne Venker Show. Her website is www.suzannevenker.com.
