It’s impressive how, even when he sets out to describe the shortcomings of his gender, David Brooks so efficiently offends womankind. The New York Times opinion columnist, known to get a little wacky when writing about boys and girls, today offered an unusual read of Hanna Rosin’s The End of Men, grossly extrapolating from Rosin’s observation that young women striving for the middle class reminded her of her immigrant parents.
“Women, Rosin argues, are like immigrants who have moved to a new country. They see a new social context, and they flexibly adapt to new circumstances. Men are like immigrants who have physically moved to a new country but who have kept their minds in the old one. They speak the old language. They follow the old mores. Men are more likely to be rigid; women are more fluid.”
The “new country” in this metaphor is the post-recession information economy. Never mind that the women succeeding in it are simply using the patriarchy’s playbook to achieve what men have long enjoyed — economic independence plus enough to support children and/or out-of-work partners. Women are shape-shifting newcomers here to take all the jobs, at any cost.
“[Hookup culture] allows [women] to have sex and fun without any time-consuming distractions from their careers,” Brooks writes. “Like new immigrants, women are desperate to rise and they embrace social and sexual rules that give them the freedom to focus on their professional lives.”
Good thing the next generation of young men is too busy playing video games to imbibe this nonsense!
