Diminishing masculinity?
- ke yu
- Feb 27
- 3 min read

The ‘assaults’ seem to come from different angles.
First, in “Boys Adrift” (published almost 20 years ago by Leonard Sax, 2007), he laid out environmental, biological, psychological, cultural and educational factors. Environmental and biological factors here mainly refer to the pervasiveness of chemicals of bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates in plastics (also some personal care products). These chemicals turn male fishes (in rivers with plastic pollution) to produce eggs instead of sperm. In humans, they also interfere with the body's hormonal system, reducing Testosterone production (male hormone) and mimicking Estrogen (female hormone, as they can bind to estrogen receptors).
Then there are various challenges in the schooling system. The schooling system we have now has changed little from the time when mass education started together with the 1st industrial revolution, except for two no less problematic changes: 1) pushing academic content to younger and younger children; 2) increasing dominance of cognitive content at the expenses of experiential one. For the unchanging part, one enduring feature of this system is the expectation of order and uniformity, partly due to feasibility concerns (it’s hard to allow everyone to learn different things at their own pace when one teaches hundreds of students) and partly a hope to instill self-discipline and respect (compliance to) authority seen as good factory workers qualities. These expectations fit girls better than boys: girls can sit still for longer; girls strive better in groups; and girls often want to please authorities, so they do what they are told or expected.
Combined with other general gender and developmental differences (for example boys’ cognitive development starts later than girls; boys learn better through experiential learning, etc.), the push of academic skills to younger age (e.g. before formal schooling starts) makes many boys increasingly finding the system alienating and harder to cope. At some point, many also lose motivation to cope.
This has also in turn contributed to much higher (over) diagnoses of ADHD and subscription of ADHD medications in recent years to suppress fidgety and hyper activities. A medical solution sounds less personal and is much easier than rethinking the whole education system. These drugs often produce short-term results in terms of behavior changes and academic results. However, the drugs also have side effects of suppressing risk-taking, and creativity, and ultimately lead to drug reliance to feel motivated rather than developing self-driven ambition. The feminization of the teaching profession (& thus inadequate role models) also did little to help the situation.
Then video games came onto the market. For boys who already felt alienated, this was a God-sent. The greatest escape. Not only can they now be immersed in a world where they are their own bosses, but aggression (among other traits) is no longer condemned, suppressed or denied, but rewarded.
The other assault came under an even more benign disguise. It does not necessarily emerge later, but was only pointed out almost 10 years after Leonard Sax’s book (in “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt in 2018). It is safetyism that is pushed by both the policies and parents. As an approach that seeks to prioritize safety, this concept is intuitively appealing. Who would want to deliberately expose or subject whoever cares about to anything dangerous? However, paradoxically, absence or too little stress or hardship do equal damage as too much of them. With the pervasive discourse of the importance of letting feelings and comfort guide one’s decision, the opportunity to grow from discomfort and disagreement is pushed away and lost. This is not unique to boys, but it has made boys more fragile.
So, what now?
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