I signed up here in 2004. So, sometimes, when I'm doing these riffs, I think, "How would this have played in 2004?" In this case, I think the headline would have been viewed as utter nonsense.
Summary: Jason Mangone, our Executive Director, writes about his reflections on our research with Movember, a charity focusing on men’s health.
The irony of someone named Mangone writing about men's issues isn't lost on me. Though I imagine it's not pronounced like that.
Online discourse has been statistically proven to be weird. This is especially true when talking about issues related to men and masculinity.
That's because we're supposed to sit down, shut up, and let the women talk.
In my effort to highlight the maw of the engagement machine, I went to Twitter and typed “masculinity” into the search bar. I discovered that this week’s online debate centers on a VICE article about “Mankeeping,” or “the emotional labor women end up doing in heterosexual relationships.”
This article is from late 2025. Twitter no longer existed then.
As for "Mankeeping," do a little thought experiment here: suppose some man came up with a word like "womankeeping," describing how exhausting it is to have to listen to women complain about every little detail of their day. Now, what label would you slap on such a man?
We asked Americans to choose, from a list of seventeen traits, “which do you think are most important that men try to exemplify nowadays?” The top answer, chosen by 36 percent of all respondents, is “Providing for your family.”
36 percent is hardly a resounding majority. There's a chart with a bunch of the answers at the link.
Even more boring: most Americans don’t view discussions about men’s issues to be zero sum. An overwhelming majority – 77 percent – of Americans agree that “Addressing men’s issues and women’s issues are both important and talking about one doesn’t reduce support for the other,” compared to only 12 percent who agree that “Discussions about men’s issues take attention away from addressing the challenges women face today.”
While that's heartening (and there's another chart for it), I feel like 12 percent is still way too high, and reflects a common attitude in society which is like "Why are we even thinking about Y when X is a problem?"
As if we can't walk and chew gum at the same time.
If you want to parse the headline, though, I'll have to leave that up to the linked article. I'm done for today.
