Why Don't All Men Love Feminism?

Source: http://scroll.lib.westfield.ma.edu:2108/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=mlin_w_westsc&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA488638680&inPS=true&linkSource=interlink&sid=AONE

Traditionally, men have had things the rough way. It was the men who had to wake up early, leave at sunrise, and perform back-breaking labor until sunset in order to come home with some money, and put food on the table. Why then, don't all men love feminism? One of it's main themes is the destruction of gender-roles, especially those in the workplace. Feminism is largely a fight to allow women into jobs like construction and law enforcement. If more women worked these jobs, then more men could stay at home and take care of the house - or work easy part time jobs, while the women of the house works her life away in order to pay the bills. That sounds like a much more comfortable life, to me!

I think inherently, men would rather be in control than to have comfort. Because most men (or people in general) can't feel comfortable if their life is not in their own hands. Being a stay-at-home man is tough for a lot of men, not because they want to work - but because they want to be in control of their household. If they are not making more money than the women of the house, then the women assumes a sense of power over the decision making and such in that particular home. In an article published by W. Bradford Wilcox and Samuel Sturgeon, we read "young adults are more likely to embrace traditional attitudes about male breadwinning, female homemaking and male authority in the home, according to a new report from sociologists Joanna Pepin and David Cotter." We would expect our elders to hold more traditional views then we do, but actually, it is the younger generation that would prefer to revert to the days when the man was in charge of the household.

Perhaps this is due to the alarming rate of fatherless homes today, compared to in the past. Today, we have more children than ever before growing up without fathers. While in the past, many homes were plagued with angry, oppressive fathers, today, many homes don't have any father at all. This change in household makup explains the shift in ideal among youth, because it seems our kids would rather have a stern father, than no father. In the good old days, many families were stuck with mean fathers that did not necessarily know how to be a leader of a family - and they began to question why it was generally the man in charge, and not the kind, caring mothers. Today, the opposite is happening. More women are forced to work because of a lack of a father in their kids lives, which leads to the women becoming angry and bitter similar to the fathers of the olden days. Now, kids look at their stressed mothers, and just wish they had a father to take the load off of her and run things so she could do chores and relax!

In this sense, the traditional household isn't a bad household. In fact it was the norm because, it was the most widely accepted setup. Women tended to be better at doing the household chores, while men tended to cope better with the stress of work and paying bills. The inherent problem with this is that it gave men the power in the house, and some men abused their power. While many women are content to let a man run things, today, the mere idea is not to be uttered aloud. Any women who allows herself to be taken care of by a man is seen as needy, when women are supposed to be independent and strong! Personally, I think people should set themselves up in a way that they are happy. Whether the man is in charge, the woman is in charge, or it is a joint operation. Whatever works best for an individual household, is the proper way for that household to run, and nobody needs to tell them how to run themselves!