Trip to “Guyland”

In my usual Internet wanderings, I stumbled upon a very interesting article this morning about men who refuse to grow up.

What “growing up” is is never explained. It is hinted at, and the hint is marriage-kids-house-job. The overwhelming hint is seriousness.

As one who comes from an entire family that has staunchly refused to grow up (even while attaining these external and socially-determined markers), a family that sees a serious life in many ways as worse than death, my whole self rebels. Is it really so terrible if young men are rejecting the soul-selling monotony of traditional adulthood?

ManPants and I play video games and watch too much t.v. Yet we spend as much time as we can with Pea and run a business. These things are not mutually exclusive; they are not the disparate ends of a magnetized life, never able to meet. Life is not a heart, that malfunctions if a vein chooses a different direction. Men should not be expected to “settle down” right out of high school or college, any more than women should. I would argue neither sex should be required to “settle down” at all. Responsibility does not require 24-hour devotion.

The actual problems described in the article are not unique to “Guyland”. Nor are they new. In spite of the dismissal of male privilege, that privilege is precisely the disease. Extending some semblance of childhood, while parallel in some ways, is a completely separate symptom.

(For more on “guys”, Racialicious takes on Judd Apatow.)