by Kevin Morris

Created on: February 10, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

I am neither a social scientist nor an economist. I am merely an American college student writing about what he has seen in his short twenty years. The title of this piece says it all; I have come to the conclusion that working-class men in the United States are in a precarious position. New books like The War on Boys and other research data indicate that men are falling behind in education, a trend magnified by the "skill bias" of the new global economy. Men are more likely to have substance abuse problems, kill themselves, and spend time in prison. Many of these trends and statistics have been brought to our national consciousness, so I am telling you nothing new. What I hope to add here is an interpretation and speculation as to what these trends and others mean for the future of America in general, and its progressive movement in particular.

Spreading Misogyny, a recent book, chronicled the growing volume of negative pop culture stereotypes of men. From The Simpsons to Malcolm in the Middle to Family Guy, it seems that the average American male is chubby, spacey, and useless. Some would argue that these stereotypes apply only to white men, but such shows as Bernie Mac and George Lopez seem to belie that statement. And while many would dismiss such caricatures of men as little more than humorous generalizations, I argue that this cultural antagonism towards men (particularly middle or working-class men) is only the most visible aspect of a general decline in the social capital of American men.
I consider myself a pro-feminist man. The feminist movement and its efforts towards wage parity, educational opportunity, and political participation is a proud and permanent fixture of American progressivism. However, like any social movement, feminism had unintended consequences. However, unlike most, I don't blame feminism or the feminist revolution for the current "crisis" in American masculinity. Rather, I blame the capitalist system for its endless ability to usurp any social movement for its own interests.
If it were not for the declining real wages of men in the early 1970s, there would have been no backlash against feminism. What working men failed to realize was that it was not feminism that had made their lives more difficult, but the outsourcing and deindustrialization of America. And those decisions were not made by vanguard feminists, but by rich men on Wall Street and in Washington. Yet mass media and conservative punditry managed to convince millions of

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