New York Times: ‘Men, Please Come Back!’
An article published in the New York Times in late June entitled “Men, Where Have You Gone? Please Come Back” has drawn a vociferous, and mostly negative, online response.
The article, penned by an aging Gen-X woman, is a largely irritatingly-written, psychobabbly puff piece, but the sentiment it expresses is seemingly heartfelt. The numerous withering ripostes it has received (see mine here) all make valid points, but they mostly miss out on noting the most remarkable aspect of the column, namely the fact that it was published in the New York fucking Times, of all places.
When the flagship “prestige” news organ of the liberal-leftist-feminist mainstream media puts out an article in which a woman forlornly begs for men to return to the romantic sphere, it’s a clear sign that MGTOW has ceased to be a fringe movement. Moreover, the appearance of such a piece in a venue like the NYT is an obvious indication that the culture-shapers are attempting to orchestrate a “vibe shift.”
After all, since the end of the Cold War, but especially with the dawning of the Age of Woke ten years ago, the ubiquitous trend amongst major institutions of the Western world, both public and private, both bureaucratic and corporate, has been to promote radical feminism— along with transgender normalization, anti-white identity politics, and other inherently divisive ideologies— whilst displaying absolutely no concomitant sympathy for men or masculinity.
Corporate and elite-approved virtue-signaling rhetoric has long promoted double standards when it comes to men and women (e.g., it’s good and proper to make fun of men for lying about their height on dating sites, but at the same time totally reprehensible and thoroughly misogynistic to draw attention to women for lying about their weight on those same sites), and a huge swath of non self-hating men have noticed, and responded accordingly, removing themselves from the mainstream scene and setting up camp in dissident territory.
When the society in which you were born keeps giving you the middle finger, eventually you stop trying to find acceptance in that society. At some juncture, hopefully sooner rather than later, you stop trying to claim to smirkers and sneerers that you have a valid point of view that deserves to be heard. You cease communicating altogether with people who only seem capable of despising you and who show no inclination to listen, much less attempt to empathize, with your perspective. Why waste your time, your breath, and your energy on such a futile and unrewarding task?
With the institutionalization of radical feminism within mainstream culture, the scenario described above has played itself out amongst thousands of men. Now, our would-be cultural commissars are in a tight spot. They have leaned so heavily on anti-male virtue-signaling for so long that it has cost them two Presidential elections.
But in truth, this dilemma is entirely one of their own making What could be called the “Joe Rogan-ization” of male sensibilities has occurred precisely because men have been driven out of what is laughably called “polite” society, which is to say, society that has received the cultural commissar’s stamp of approval. Hence the much-derided recent efforts of the Democratic party’s efforts to “reach” men that they have lost, with frequently “cringe” results.
When the Left actually represented the working class and its concerns, and wasn’t widely perceived as a clearinghouse for unhinged anti-white racism and shrill misandrist grievances, plenty of men were within its fold. The impetus behind the publication of the “Men, Where Have You Gone?” article in the Times, one suspects, stems from a desire to scale back wokeness, lest further political losses be suffered in the near future.
Which, in itself, exposes the hollowness of the appeal. Though the author of the NYT piece sounds sincere, the reason for the inclusion of her article in the newspaper’s pages is transparently cynical.
Put simply, the establishment Left wants to woo men back into their good graces, not out of a genuine recognition that misandry is wrong, cruel, and harmful, but because they’re already having anticipatory nightmares of watching President JD Vance’s Inauguration speech in January 2029.
