Kay Hymowitz calls us to see the "child-man"

Kay Hymowitz, a so-called “social columnist” has a book out talking about the “child-man” who is part of what she has dubbed today’s “pre-adult” culture— single people between the ages of 21 – 35.

Hymowitz has concluded that the “child-man” of today, as illustrated in the movies by Seth Rogan, Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler, is a man who wonders if he’s really needed in this world and often opts to forego even trying to compete in the workplace. Instead he often retreats into a world that is designed to take his mind off the serious stuff from electronic gadgets to sexcapades.

An AOL writer interviewed Hymowitz and asked this question:

You say that child-men aren't necessarily born out of the supposed "crisis of masculinity," in which men feel threatened by women's progress. Instead, they're kind of just opting out. But they're often ironic about it, or at least aware of what's going on. Am I getting that right?

“That's my reading of it. But my reading of the child-man is that he's not saying that ‘you @&!!x#! women have to behave the way I want you to.’ It's more, ‘I don't get what I'm here for.’ Remember that they have heard from when they were quite young that fathers were nice to have around but really optional. And they grew up observing that.

This is very, very different from the way most young men have grown into adulthood. And I'm talking historically and cross-culturally. Men knew that they had that social role to play.

And here I'm not just being descriptive, I'm being prescriptive: I think we have, as a culture, been too dismissive of the male role in the family.” --Hymowitz


Dissmissive? That's a nice way to put it.

These "child-men" and their pre-adult women friends need to hear the Gospel. Of course, it would be great if both had grown up seeing it lived, but the ravages of divorce, propelled by a contraception mentality, have made that rare, even among those who profess Christianity.

--Bro. Jim