Men haven't turned away from smart, successful women because they're smart and successful. More likely they've turned away because the feminist movement that encouraged women to be smart and successful also encouraged them to be hostile and demeaning to men.
Whatever was wrong, men did it. During the last 30 years, they've been variously characterized as male chauvinist pigs, deadbeat dads or knuckle-dragging abusers who beat their wives on Super Bowl Sunday. At the same time women wanted men to be wage-earners and act like girlfriends: to time their contractions, feed and diaper the baby, and go antiquing.
And then, when whatshisname inevitably lapsed into guyness, women wanted him to disappear. If children were involved, women got custody and men got an invoice. The eradication of men and fathers from children's lives has been feminism's most despicable accomplishment. Half of all children will sleep tonight in a home where their father does not live.
Did we really think men wouldn't mind?
Meanwhile, when we're not bashing men, we're diminishing manhood. Look around at entertainment and other cultural signposts and you see a feminized culture that prefers sanitized men: hairless, coiffed, buffed. Men don't know whether to be "metrosexuals" getting pedicures, or "groomzillas" obsessing about wedding favors or, the latest, "ubersexuals"--yes to the coif, no to androgyny.
As far as I can tell, real men don't have a problem with smart, successful women. But they do mind being castrated.
She hits a lot of the nail's head. Men, however, are partly to blame. No one can force you to give up your backbone and to lapse into semi-feminist ways, but many "men" do so voluntarily (I'm reminded of one "man" who told a reporter that he must sit down when he urinates out of deference to his girlfriend's hatred of the patriarchal urinal).
What do I care if women tell me I oughtta be willing to cry in public? I won't (barring something really sad; and never out of maudlin exhibitionism, like a groom weeping at the beauty of his wedding). If they don't like my dry eyes, they can buy their own beer.
Granted, many "men" today didn't have a virile upbringing: the public schools castrated them and the fathers weren't around to show them a better way. But that's no excuse to go through life like a mental and emotional hermaphrodite. There are plenty of John Wayne films on DVD.
And if you're religious, contemplate the life of St. Joseph. He was a real man.
