I don't even believe women are the problem, if anything they are just as much the victim biologically, yet society has been overhauled in the last 30-40 years to cater to creatures of their nature(submissive, dominated by the hormone estrogen, etc).
If you take what he is saying as truth--albeit with grain of salt as well--about the (phytoestrogens in plastic, testosterone blocking substances, estrogen hormones in beef even, birth control pills not being completely broken down by water treatment facilities) all around us that we are consuming, then its neither men nor women who are the problem, but society, technology, and industry as a whole.
While women are 'supposedly' benefiting from the estrogens all around us, maturing physically at a younger age now more than ever, they respond to estrogens in the same way that we respond to testosterone. They become more assertive, aggressive, driven, ambitious, etc. While men on the other hand, respond to estrogen in a way that essentially causes us to act/be more feminine, on a psychological and physiological level.
There was a long study done on the fish in the Columbia river(where many estrogen-containing waste is dumped), and it documents the change of the male fish. The females lay eggs and the males fertilize them. Recently, in the past 15-25 years, the male fish have started laying eggs too. You always expect there to be genetic mutations, its part of evolution, but when you have a substantial portion of the population of MALE fish LAYING EGGS, it is a cause for concern.
Pair that side by side with the evidence that MALE HUMANS have recorded a 50% drop in sperm count over the past 30-50 years, its pretty clear that humans are just as susceptible to these hormone changes as fish are.
You might be able to rationalize the drop of testosterone over the same 30-50 year period, because it can also coincide with a drop of estrogen levels, which leaves the 'victim' no better or worse off than before... But a drop in sperm count.. that is very significant because that only happens when estrogen levels are RISING, and Test. levels are FALLING.
Now this is only a small part of the focus of the book, from what I'm reading, it deals more with the affects of this.
There's a good bit on how society has been evolving to disengage boys and men, by labelling things in school like play-fighting, snowball throwing(you can get punished in some school boards where I live for even picking up snow), and many other physical activities that are FAR more engaging to the male brain than sitting watching a documentary on the history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire(no offense to the history buffs here
). Of course these changes are not to attack the behavior of boys intentionally, they're just to protect the school institutions from legal liability.
Even with taking this information with a grain of salt, it's looking more and more like Western society is not sustainable and in several generations, the UNNATURAL relationship between masculinized females and feminine males will be dire(a little too profound?
).
There was also a survey done in universities, asking students whether they will get married or not one day... A full 2/3rds of the guys said that they probably would like to get married one day and raise a family... On the other hand, half(1 in 2) of the girls said they will NOT be getting married in their life.
How do you think this represents the value young men and women nowadays put on marriage/children?
The author believes that on a statistic level, in one hundred years or so, islamic cultures and others who place a higher value on marriage/family, will be the dominant cultures in the West.
Even if western(america, canada, uk) cultures still have children at the same rate, as now, the only difference being LESS marriages... Where do you think that will leave young men and women in that scenario?
Boys and girls being raised by SINGLE PARENT HOMES, being taught by an educational system that has a very negative affect on the value of masculinity in men and femininity in women(treating men and women the same--do not confuse with equality, and penalizing masculine behavior as WRONG/BAD/EVIL), will leave many lost and confused generations of young people, that we can already see today, and many of us can personally relate to and have spoken about.
This post turned out long, but I think this is one of the most important topics to discuss and understand... It's not some hocus-pocus "World will end in 2012" topics, where there are no trends, evidence, or reasons to believe that could happen. Rather its something that has already started to happen, CAN and HAS been measured and documented. It definitely won't be something that could destroy all of humanity, but it IS something that I do believe can destroy western/industrial society.
At the risk of sounding a bit too profound again, I really don't see what can be done about this, because it's happening on a physiological level, and many corporations are benefiting from docile men and women becoming more of a power in the workforce...
That's all I can really spit out right now, I haven't read much of the book yet, but I do find it fascinating.
cheers
