Political Gender Gap Among Young People

 (Via Rob Henderson). The Growing Gender Gap Among Young People  

From the Brookings Institute, a notably liberal think tank, comes the information that the girls are moving left, but the boys are remaining about the same in their beliefs, but all the focus is on "What on earth is happening with these boys?" At a more granular level, the young men are increasingly saying they are being discriminated against, they have higher rates of suicide, they are doing worse at school - but the young women are increasingly embracing "anti-patriarchal" values. What patriarchy are they referring to? Liberation from what? The remnant of men who just don't understand?From the outside, it looks more like they have won and are trying to eliminate their opposition entirely and drink blood from their skulls.

I must say that I am relying on the numbers here, as it does not fit the young women I know.  OTOH, the young women I know are nonsecular elites at a suburban church, or they work in retail or in restaurants which means they are students or nonelites who have jobs doing measurable work. My sample is not representative, so they might not fit the data for that reason.

For those of us who have been reading things on the conservative side - and being exposed to the liberal side whether we like it or not - this Brookings article is an excellent example of liberal assumptions being so deeply embedded that they cannot even hear their own voices, nor can their editors.  The focus on the puzzle of the boys staying in the same place because they assume that the girls are moving in the proper direction, the opinions of all decent people.  They interpret data through a lens. 

Men in particular feel isolated. Brookings nonresident senior fellow, Richard Reeves, has studied the issue arguing in his book Of Boys and Men that rapid societal changes combined with a market shift from brawn to brain have left many men feeling bereft and without purpose. Reeves, a self-described “feminist”, does not make the argument that the liberation of women is a bad thing but instead suggests finding new roles for men and a redefinition of “masculinity” in this changing world.

Redefining masculinity.  I recall hearing about that since the 1960s.  I was good at it, actually, but marriage, fatherhood, owning a home, and a mixed workplace beat it out of me. Not to put too fine a point on it, young man adopt such views in order to get laid, which is a rather traditional masculinity in the short run.  When that no longer works quite as wells, as now, they see less need to make that adjustment. I think we know what is going to be in the redefined masculinity basket, and it's going to be "be more like the girls," just like we were told in school. Or by the girls. 

You have to wonder how they are interpreting their own data.

The incentive for change and action may be there, but not through democratic means. This is made more disconcerting by the fact that this is coming at a time when democracy could yet again be in peril this election year. But what exactly are men experiencing which could make this scenario a potential reality? Well, young men are overwhelmingly the loneliest demographic, with 63% of men aged 18 to 29 reporting being single, compared to 34% of women in the same age group.

Um, who are these young women married to, then? Is polygamy now common in that age group? Did no one ask that question and think "OK, maybe that loneliness thing isn't as accurate as we thought."