Vermischtes vom 14. April 2016

1. Ohne speziell von der "Jungenkrise" an unseren Schulen zu sprechen, erläutert Dorothea Siems in der "Welt", wie sich einer Studie der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung zufolge Dinge wie die fehlende Lesekompetenz, die nun mal besonders bei Jungen besteht, auf ihrem späteren Ausbildungaweg bemerkbar machen:

Jeder dritte IHK-Betrieb und viele gerade auch renommierte Hochschulen erteilten mittlerweile "nachholenden Schulunterricht" wie etwa Schreibberatung, Texterfassung und -verständnis oder Brückenkurse in Mathematik, heißt es in der Studie. (...) Große Schwächen bestünden selbst bei Germanistikstudenten in der Rechtschreibung und der sprachlichen Ausdrucksfähigkeit. (...) Viele grundlegende Fähigkeiten wie logisches Analysieren von Texten oder Rechtschreibung würden heute vernachlässigt.

2. Diverse Zeitungen veröffentlichen heute einen dpa-Artikel, in dem es heißt:

In jüngsten Umfragen liegen die Sozialdemokraten unter 20 Prozent in der Wählergunst - trotz ihrer Errungenschaften in der großen Koalition mit Mindestlohn, Rente ab 63 oder Frauenquote.

Was die Frauenquote angeht: Nicht "trotz", sondern "wegen". Die SPD gefällt sich darin, sich von Journalisten feiern zu lassen, die Sexismus für eine "Errungenschaft" halten. Aber die Mehrheit der Wähler denkt nicht so.



3. In einem Ranking der Väterfreundlichkeit kommt die Stadt Essen auf den letzten Platz.



4. Shaming Men Doesn't Build Better Sexuality erklärt der Sexualpsychologe David J. Ley in der populärwissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift Psychology Today. Ein Auszug:

Male sexuality is not a disease, not a public health crisis, it is not evil, and it does not overpower men’s lives or choices. Shaming men for these behaviors isolates men, and ignores powerful, important and healthy aspects of masculinity.

There is a common perception of male sexuality as intrinsi­cally selfish, overly focused on "scoring" and sexual conquests, on anonymous, "soulless" sex, and on the outward manifestations of virility. But there are other, oft neglected sides of male eroticism. Straight men are far more focused upon women’s needs, and upon closeness with women, than we give them credit for. Nancy Friday wrote that "Men’s love of women is often greater than their love of self." Men give up friends and male camaraderie and accept a life of economic support of women, even leading up to an earlier death, all in order to be with women. More than half of all men describe that their best sexual encounters came when they "gave a woman physical pleasure beyond her dreams." Men redi­rect their selfishness away from their own satisfaction, and toward a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment, by giving sexual satisfaction. Male sexuality often involves an intense focus on the needs of their partners, and men gain great pleasure, even a strong sense of manliness, from giving their lover sexual pleasure.

(...) Male sexuality is portrayed as something that men must guard against, and it is often described as though it is a demonic force, lurking within our souls, which must be constrained, feared and even rejected. Men are portrayed as powerless to control themselves, in the face of sexual arousal that is too strong. Men are painted as weak, harmed and warped by sexual experiences such as pornography. As a result, men are told to be ashamed of the sexual desires that society has called unhealthy, and told to forego those condemned sexual interests. But an essential part of man is lost when we encourage men to split themselves from their sexuality.

Ich fürchte, dass diese Erkenntnisse es schwer haben, sich gegen das radikalfeministisch geprägte Mediengeplapper über Männersexualität durchzusetzen. Auch der Auffassung von Autoren wie Volker Ellis Pilgrim – "Der Mann ist sexuell und sozial ein Idiot" –, die mit ihrer Phantasie vom noch minderwertigen Mann prägend beispielsweise für die Ideologie des Bundesforums Männer waren, läuft diese Würdigung der männlichen Sexualität zuwider.



5. Abilash Gopal, ein Psychiater, der auf junge Erwachsene spezialisiert ist, sieht überbehütende Helikopter-Eltern als Ursache für die junge Generation selbstgerechter Opfer, die sich von jeder Kleinigkeit angegriffen und diskriminiert fühlen:

While working with this population, I have noticed a parallel between the behavior and psychological distress I see in the overparented child and the growing number of college students protesting on campuses with sensitivities and demands that seem disproportionate to reality.

College students across America are holding sit-ins and hunger strikes in the name of feeling unsafe and discriminated against, despite the public’s perception that American universities are generally liberal, tolerant places. While some of the protests are warranted, the sheer number of these occurrences has caused sociologists to wonder if we’re witnessing the development of a "victimhood culture": an environment in which people are encouraged to think of themselves as weak, marginalized, and oppressed in order to take advantage of third parties to police and punish perceived transgressions.

(...) I believe that psychotherapy can help teens recover from years of overparenting, and I have been a part of that process. What seems almost irreversible is the growing trend of entitled young Americans who are demanding accommodations and reparations for perceived slights or "microaggressions" that may be only loosely based in reality.

It seems likely that many of the students at elite and liberal colleges who are complaining about the ways in which the world is keeping them down were once children raised by helicopter parents. The coddled child becomes the entitled teenager. The teen who expects his parents to fix his problems becomes the college student who demands that professors and administrators remove his obstacles.

If we continue to walk on eggshells to avoid offending these hypersensitive young adults, we are empowering their victimhood status. If we continue to indulge their irrational demands, we are robbing them of the opportunity to learn how to function independently in the real world. If we continue to overparent our kids, we are in danger of raising further generations of adolescents that are missing three key virtues of character: self-reliance, self-confidence, and resilience.

6. "Wir schreiben das Jahr 2016. Warum bezahlen Männer immer noch für Frauen bei Dates?" fragt der Boston Globe.



7.

Men’s rights activists are feminists favorite punching bag. Whenever feminists encounter someone or something they do not like, they associate it with the men’s rights movement. This is particularly true when they encounter criticism of feminism. Many feminists find it difficult to believe that anyone would reject or oppose their ideology. The only reason feminists can fathom someone would do that is that the person is guided by misogyny. What is the primary source of modern misogyny according to feminists? The men’s rights movement.

It is therefore no surprise that when Sarah Khan wrote an article about a date gone wrong due to political disagreement, her first impulse was to accuse the man of being a men’s rights activist (...).

Hier geht es weiter mit einem gelungenen Artikel über feministische Fehlschlüsse und wie sie als "Ich habe Recht!" inszeniert werden.



8. Die Rape Culture in Indien macht auch vor den dortigen Justizwesen nicht halt: "Einvernehmlicher Sex mit dem Versprechen der Heirat ist keine Vergewaltigung" argumentierte dort ein Rechtsanwalt vor dem Oberen Gerichtshof. Bislang wurden indische Männer, die Frauen mit dem Eheversprechen ins Bett lockten, als Vergewaltiger verurteilt. Damit, so fordert der in dem Artikel porträtierte Rechtsanwalt, müsse jetzt Schluss sein.



9. Der Cartoon des Tages stammt heute von This Isn't Happiness.