Manning Up or Wimping Out: Men Don’t Exist to Serve Women’s Desires
JB:
Women, beginning in the 1960′s have been working hard to become the best men they can be.
Didn’t Michelle Obama say that?
“We are the men we’ve been waiting for.”
(No, she didn’t, but I couldn’t resist…)
Dr. Helen, please add one more to the list of men who’d love to read your book. It’s a story that isn’t told often enough, and it really should be told by a woman — one who knows where the ‘good men’ have gone and why.
I was taught to treat women with chivalry. My wife was startled when she first realized that I made a point of walking between her and traffic. Do I think she doesn’t know how to cross the street by herself, she asked me? Of course she does… but I was demonstrating my willingness to be responsible for her safety (just as, when I proposed to her with a one-carat diamond ring, I was demonstrating my willingness to provide for her). It’s my job, and my proud privilege. One of the reasons we got married is that she did learn to understand this, and to appreciate it.
(My stepdaughters will take a little longer. It amuses me each time our teenager scoffs at such antiquated values… and then sees a spider and shrieks for me to come “deal with it”. My toddler sons will learn this as they grow — that it’s their job to take good care of their womenfolk… and their right to walk away from those who can’t be bothered to appreciate it.)
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
