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Men on a marriage strike
Posted By katie allison granju
Dr. Helen says men are increasingly avoiding marriage because they’ve done a cost-benefit analysis and have found the institution lacking:
…men are on a marriage strike, not necessarily because they are perpetual adolescents or avoiding deep attachments to others but because the reward for being an adult in our society is so low, especially for men.
It’s really simple Psychology 101 (or Economics 101) — make something negative enough and people will avoid it, make it positive, and more people will engage in that particular behavior.
Nowadays, for many men, the negatives of marriage for men often outweigh the positives. Therefore, they engage in it less often. Not because they are bad, not because they are perpetual adolescents, but because they have weighed the pros and cons of marriage in a rational manner and found the institution to be lacking for them. It’s a sensible choice for some and the video games, magazines, and humor websites that Hymowitz disses are a way to fill one’s time with fun activities that don’t tell you that you suck, are an “unfinished person,” emotionally detached or on your way to jail for fake domestic violence charges. People used to treat men better than this.
Feb 7th, 2008
I’m so glad we men have Dr. Helen to look out for us and speak for us.
Theirs still allot of women,who still don’t know theres a marriage strike going on,I asked two girls in their 20s what they thought about it. And they asked me whats a marriage strike,when I gave them the statistics & one girl just gave a wimpering voice & said,I’m not worried as if I destroyed her self esteem. I didn’t mean to!