4-18-14
English 101
A War Against Boys
In today’s society people are always looking to blame someone or something for the way something is run or happening. In Michael Kimmel’s essay, he presents the idea that many people believe that our boys are in trouble. By this he means that they are not being looked at the same way they once were, rambunctious, loud, strong, men. This is what we think he is saying, but going a little bit deeper we see that he truly does not believe there is a war on boys, and in fact they are doing better then most people think.
In Michael Kimmel’s essay, “A War Against Boys”, he believes that there really is no war against boys. Kimmel suggests that these assumptions being made by current boy advocates saying that educational reforms want to empower girl’s performance while hindering boys, and that boys are being discriminated against at a young age creates a false opposition. In all actuality, the number of men going to college has increased drastically compared to women since the 1960’s. Also, if anyone is to blame for the amount of men’s decreasing educational abilities, it is the men themselves because “boys bump up against the norms of masculinity”, regarding English as a feminine subject, says Kimmel. The author also mentions that there is more race imbalance in schools today then there are gender imbalances, but people tend to overlook that because it is easier to blame boys for just being boys. Kimmel states that we cannot set the bar too low or too high for men, being that each man is hardwired in their own. Kimmel concludes that there is no such thing as a war on boys I do not agree that boys are doing worse, but in fact doing much better then they used to in the educational system. I believe that in today’s society both men and women are equal in education and other fields. As the essay by Michael Kimmel stated, the amount of men going to college has increased drastically since the 1960’s. Today the amount of students going to college is 64 percent boys and 70 percent of girls. In fact, Kimmel stated that that a woman with a college degree earns about the same amount as a man with only a high school degree. So in conclusion, I believe that boys are doing just as good the girls of today’s generation. I believe this was a very informative essay that gave a lot of information on the boys in today’s world. People have changed and come a long way. The essay stated that past times were easier for boys but that is not true. Boys used to get in trouble then more then they would today for being loud or just regular boys. For people to judge these boys saying that they are in trouble, they really have not thought about or looked into the statistics at all. As I have already said, the boys are doing just as well as the girls if not better. When I think about men today, I still think that some get more pay then girls with better hours, they are still looked at as the stronger sex, and it was written in a survey that more people would hire or consider a man for a job before looking at a woman. I feel that this essay has it all wrong and that although the women have come a long way, they are still constantly overlooked when it comes to the work world. I believe that some people believe that women are still just supposed to remain at home to take care of the kids while the man “brings home the bacon.” Personally, I do not think this is fair and I know that in my future household there will be no such thing as either parent sitting at home while the other one works. Both of us will have jobs and bring in the “bread.”
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