I think the male identity crisis that you described and the negative stereotyping of men are actually two separate phenomena.
I think the identity crisis is the result of being a provider for a family no longer being considered a fulfilling, satisfying life. The popular position is that men are "threatened" by their wives bringing home paychecks, which I don't think is really true (at least not with current generations. Perhaps older Boomers), and don't know what to do with themselves because of that. I think, rather, it's that family life just isn't as appealing as it was at the height of the Protestant Work Ethic's social dominance. To channel Chuck Palahniuk, we grew up wanting to be rock stars, and working all day just to come home and watch the kids play till bedtime isn't going to cut it for us anymore. It's quite frankly depressing to feel like we're being denied the lives we could and should be having.
I could try to draw some connection here and say that men like to sit around drinking beer, watching sports, playing video games, and looking at porn because they're secretly depressed they aren't rock stars. While there may be some truth to that, I think that as a generalization it'd be a very weak case. Really, I think that some sitcom writer just decided to parody their own father or uncle, and the character of the "loutish man with said behaviors" became a popular one that was repeated until it became a societal mindset; men think that's what's expected of them, and women expect men to behave like that and to feel exasperated with them for it.
Fortunately, I think it's a temporary thing, as such behavior is becoming increasingly normative for both genders. I know a lot of girls who enjoy crashing on the couch with their boyfriends while playing video games and eating snack foods.
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I think the identity crisis is the result of being a provider for a family no longer being considered a fulfilling, satisfying life. The popular position is that men are "threatened" by their wives bringing home paychecks, which I don't think is really true (at least not with current generations. Perhaps older Boomers), and don't know what to do with themselves because of that. I think, rather, it's that family life just isn't as appealing as it was at the height of the Protestant Work Ethic's social dominance. To channel Chuck Palahniuk, we grew up wanting to be rock stars, and working all day just to come home and watch the kids play till bedtime isn't going to cut it for us anymore. It's quite frankly depressing to feel like we're being denied the lives we could and should be having.
I could try to draw some connection here and say that men like to sit around drinking beer, watching sports, playing video games, and looking at porn because they're secretly depressed they aren't rock stars. While there may be some truth to that, I think that as a generalization it'd be a very weak case. Really, I think that some sitcom writer just decided to parody their own father or uncle, and the character of the "loutish man with said behaviors" became a popular one that was repeated until it became a societal mindset; men think that's what's expected of them, and women expect men to behave like that and to feel exasperated with them for it.
Fortunately, I think it's a temporary thing, as such behavior is becoming increasingly normative for both genders. I know a lot of girls who enjoy crashing on the couch with their boyfriends while playing video games and eating snack foods.