Men are finished

A few weeks back I watched an online debate on the topic “Men are finished”. It’s interesting that we’re having this debate at all. After all, men still overwhelmingly dominate politics, science, sports, even restaurant kitchens. Naturally, I dismissed the motion as absurd.

I was wrong.

Lately, I spent eight consecutive days trekking in the Himalayas with twenty strangers, sans internet. 15 of those strangers were men. This was one of the few times when I was forced to flock with birds of another feather. And man, of an entirely different feather they were.

While I am all for female equality and for shattering the glass ceiling imposed largely by men, I will never understand the “pride in being led by women”, as a friend described the situation where two women were walking ahead of the men. I will also never understand why a guy would spontaneously break into garba (which autocorrects to garbage) surrounded only by men in the middle of a cold night, and not spare them of even the gayest of its moves. Again, why would a guy dismiss as “a bit harsh” my confronting possibly the worst trek leader on planet earth, and give him the “benefit of doubt”, or, for that matter, be content with sipping watery tea simply because it’s “something warm” (why not drink piss instead)?

I have written extensively about the perils of political correctness, but this trip was an eye-opener even for me. The sample size should suffice, for all but one man behaved in this manner, and they belonged to varied socio-economic, demographic and geographic backgrounds. The younger the lot, the stronger the grip of PC. The stronger the grip of PC, the more emasculated the men. I suspect it also has something to do with the income group. As Manu Joseph put it in his novel Serious Men, “These days, men live like men only in the homes of the poor”. There’s no shame in being sensitive and living in a world where women do better, but there’s no pride in not calling a spade a spade and inviting subordination.

Men are not yet finished, but the process is underway. We won’t lose our dicks, but we’ll lose our defining traits.

The photo below captures what I want to say.