Analysis of "The War On Men" (Venker) and 'The Mythical "War on Men"' (Kimmel)

                “The War on Men”, written by Suzzane Venker approaches a touchy topic. The article supports the her opinion that “woman aren’t woman anymore” and that they no longer do the jobs that they are wired to do. She argues that the very fact that the percentage of men who want to get married has “dropped from 35 to 29 percent” is all the women’s fault because we do not perform the domestic and traditional duties we once performed on a daily basis. While it is true that woman have taken on new roles in the business society it is in my opinion untrue that this has left men “nowhere to go”.  If a woman is better at doing a job than a man is then she should get it, plain and simple, and vice versa. There are plenty of woman, in the work force, who are heads of companies and still make dinner every night for their family.  Venker takes a firm opposition to the feminist movement. She says that their belief in sex equality and them telling woman to go out and take what is rightfully theirs has contributed in a major way to the change in “gender relations”.  She also goes on to say that, “modern women” are ignoring what is in their DNA. Woman are not meant to run businesses and be the “bread winner”, they are supposed to cook the bread among their many other household chores. I do not have a feminist outlook on life because I enjoy doing the things that woman, let us face it, are just better at than men are; like cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc. Not to say that there are men out there, who do not enjoy and do these things very well.  However, I also believe that if a woman has the strength and skill to perform a job better than anyone does, and then give her the job. It is not the women’s fault if she happens to be better suited for particular things. Venker says “if men today are slackers, and if they’re retreating from marriage en masse…”, this statement in particular frustrated me because if men were not so intimidated by a woman of strength and skill then maybe they could be out there in the business world with her instead of being so hasty to accept defeat. No man wants to feel overpowered by woman, that is only natural, but no man can change that from his couch at home.

                Michael Kimmel takes an opposing approach to Suzzane Venker in his article ‘The Mythical “war on men”’.  In this article Kimmel describes how this so called “war on men” does not really exist.  I like when he says that “if women are unhappy, it’s their own damned fault” because I agree.  He debunks Venker’s argument when he says “and it encouraged men to be good – demand it, in fact—insisting that men can and should step up as equal parents, colleagues and coworkers…” by stating the fact that in modern society today woman have become more powerful it should be a wake-up call to all males that maybe they should up their game a little bit and not just hide in the shadows of the woman who overcame them and not blame their unhappiness on anyone but themselves.  Kimmel talks about how woman and men are on more of an equal playing ground than ever right now.  And that “we want it all also – and the only way we can have it all is to halve it all”, be fair and equal and there will be no one dominating sex over the other but yet a society where both can work together.