The Macho Imperative

Who's bad?

This week's Newsweek magazine had an article about how girls are gaining on boys academically. Various studies show that girls in all age groups (elementary thru high school) far outscore boys on verbal aptitude tests. They're also gaining rapidly in previously male-dominated areas such as math and science. Only @44% of college undergraduates are male now, a serious erosion from previous years. Newsweek explained the difference as over-attention to females in the last two decades -- events like "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day". While that may play a part, I have my own suspicions about culture at large.

Such a disparity has existed for some time in black subculture. Females with dependent children are more likely to assimilate into a white-dominated work world -- a world which grants financial security, health insurance and good credit ratings. But also a world which calls for compliance and respect towards established authority. Males are more likely to operate from a standpoint of rebellious machismo . They would rather have "street cred" with other males in the hood, and be dominant in a matrix of prostitution and drugs. Better to be the alpha gang member than the junior milk toast that sucks up to "the man". What I've noticed more recently is that white, asian and hispanic youth are now adopting this rationale, if you care to call it that. A boy, no matter his color, is likely to get ridiculed and beat up if he sits at the front of the class and takes notes.

What I discern thru all of this is that males are extreme 'pack' animals and the respect they get from other males is crucially important. The approval of 10 females approximates the approval they get from one other male. Should it be that way? Of course not -- but we live in a strange world where MTV, video games and early exposure to adult entertainment have created a "macho imperative". Much of this subculture immersion happens in public school. It is far more important to be bad, than to be good. Money will take care of itself, but a reputation as a wimp is apparently something that cannot be overcome or fixed. Team sports used to be a way for teenage boys to constructively work out aggressions, but in today's world that can be seen as another form of working for the man.

The unfortunate risk of this is that these young men will have a future of blue collar employment, serving french fries and serving jail terms. Their humiliation will be final, considering the macho imperative, when the women in their lives become alpha -- making all the money and thus telling them what to do. So now who's bad? Depends on how you mean the word "bad". My own inclination might be to send my children to a private school and limit their early exposure to a "gangsta" world that offers Bling but in fact delivers the ultimate sting.