Writing Project One Draft

“Where Have the Good Men Gone”

            Once upon a time there were men that were true gentlemen, but over the years they have started to dwindle down to almost extinction. All that women are left with are immature men that will not commit to a relationship or are too childish to even care about anybody but themselves. Kay S. Hymowitz argues that men in their twenties are going through a prolonged adolescence because everything is given to them that enables them to stay in this phase. The two main reasons why there are not any “good men” around are because of the media and women are becoming more and more educated which makes them more powerful and maybe even a little intimidating.

            This article should go in chapter one because although the topic is a little touchy and risky to talk about, she makes valid points on the matter at hand and even has sources. She cites an author, Julie Klausner, who wrote, “I Don’t Care About Your Band: What I Learned From Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Felons, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, and Other Guys I’ve Dated.” Both women share the same thought on today’s men population. There is no longer one kind of man that is the “protector and provider,” nowadays there seems to be more and more different types of men. She also used visuals to bring in her argument that there is a diversity of men that a few decades ago the world did not have. She uses an appeal to pathos because more than likely a lot of women will agree with her on this matter. Whether the argument is true or not she plants a seed in the minds that read this article and uses these sources and visual imagery of men to prove her point.

            The media is a major factor in her article. There are many pictures of men in movies from Seth Rogen to Charlie Sheen. One man is the typical dead beat that has to grow up and face he responsibilities like an adult and the other is powerful man that wants more in life. She has many pictures like this to show the readers examples of the kinds of men she is talking about. Her most important argument is that the media is fueling the men’s behavior. If there were no naughty magazines, sports bars, or shows like Spike and Comedy Central, men would be out in the real world and improving themselves, marrying, and helping the world. But that is not the case because these instruments that make men “frat boys” do nothing to improve the men’s behavior.

            It appeals to pathos because this article can either make the reader agree full hardly or infuriate them because they believe that what she says is not true. If an article and a person can make them feel this way, she is properly executing the article in the way that she meant. It gets people to start thinking about what the media does to people and what started this whole chain reaction. This is just one of the reasons why it should be in the first chapter of the book.

            The other reason for this article to be in the first chapter is that it appeals to logos. Now whether the logic is true or not she has statistics and graphs that show and prove her point. She claims that another reason that there are no good men is that since women have been increasingly educating themselves, it is pushing out and weeding out the competition. She also claims that women have more confidence and have more drive to accomplish their goals. So what she is saying is that in a sense, the education of women has also decreased the number of good men, either because they are insecure about themselves or they are too lazy and would rather let women do the jobs, while they complain about women having the jobs in the first place. She says that the men that are out there have to go through a lot more hoops to assert their manhood because people are constantly looking at them and judging them on their every move. Women on the other hand do not really get critiqued so it is easier for them to slip under the radar of judgment. An example of a test of their manhood would be that they have to be smart without being snobbish or arrogant.

            Another statistic that she uses is that girls mature faster than boys and never has that statement been truer than it is in today’s modern world. Men have either stopped maturing completely or have been on a very long hiatus and it is just a matter of time before they snap out of it. A few decades ago people would marry young because that was what people did in that time, but more and more in this day in age, men have stopped marrying young or not married at all. Hymowitz says that there are less young married couples than there were a few decades ago and that that is due to the fact that people want to get careers that pay well. And in order to do so they have to go through years of schooling. Add the media and educated people together and it equals a lot of single people with either well paying jobs and no family or family and no jobs.

            Overall, this article should be in the first chapter of the book because it grabs the reader’s attention through the use of pathos and logos by providing images that are used as examples for the types of men she is describing and by using statistics about women versus men on an educational level, working level, and relationship level. Now whether her argument is ethical or not is up for debate because many people could take offense of this topic and be hurt by what she says.