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A few men take this breast beating too far. Some writers in the appease-the- sisters branch of men's-movement literature hold that masculinity is a destructive atavism and an encumbrance that a small planet could do without. John Stoltenberg, a radical feminist who wrote a book called The End of Manhood, divides men into misogynists and recovering misogynists. "Manhood," he writes, "is the paradigm of injustice . . . Refusing to believe in manhood is the hot big bang of human freedom." Soft-core pamphleteering. Here we see the descendants of the ancient priests of Cybele, who as part of their initiation would castrate themselves and sling their testicles into the earth mother's pine tree.
A man who is still intact would repeat what James Joyce once said to his publisher when they were arguing about a manuscript change: I appreciate that there are two sides to this issue. But I cannot be on both sides at the same time.
In a culture of spin, attitudes churned up by mere hype may take on an enduring and powerful life of their own -- in the economy, in the culture, in government and law, in people's lives. That is why the attitudes of one sex toward the other need to be looked at.
The market economy has found that man bashing sells. Entrepreneurs have descended. Hallmark Cards' fast-selling line, Shoebox Greetings, traffics in whimsical male-dissing. Another company marketed a card that said, "Hear you're looking for a man who's your intellectual equal . . . Does the expression Fat Chance mean anything to you?" Mild enough, but still: Would the company have sold a card that said, "Hear you're looking for a black who is your intellectual equal . . . Fat Chance"? The booksellers' shelves are heavy with volumes of the Women-Who-Love-Men-Who-Hate-Women-Who-Are-Too-Good- for-the-Lousy -Jerks-Who-Snore-Anyway variety. Simon & Schuster published No Good Men, 100 pages of cartoons about what slobs and fools men are. No Good Women could not find a publisher.
An established genre of movies routinely assumes the awfulness of men, and portrays them in a way that would be judged bigoted and stereotyped if applied to blacks, Jews, Orientals or, for that matter, women. In this genre, the good guys are women and children. The bad guys are adult white men -- almost inevitably brutal, stupid, violent, seething with rage against women.