You've probably heard there's a “war against boys” in America. The latest
book of that title by Christina Hoff Sommers claims that men are now the
second sex and that boys—not girls—are the ones who are in serious trouble,
the “victims” of “misguided” feminist efforts to protect and promote girls'
development. At the same time, best-selling books like William Pollack's
Real Boys and Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson's Raising Cain sound
the same tocsin. Writing from the therapists' point of view, they warn of
alarming levels of depression and suicide, and describe boys' interior lives as
an emotionally barren landscape, with all affect suppressed beneath postures
of false bravado. They counsel anguished parents to “rescue” or “protect”
boys—not from feminists, but from a definition of masculinity that is harm-
ful not just to boys, but to girls and other living things.

In part, both sides are right. There is a crisis among boys. But the discus-
sion in the popular media misdiagnoses the cause of the crisis. Consequently
their proposed reforms would make it even harder for young boys to negoti-
ate the difficult path to a manhood of integrity, ethical commitment, and
compassion. At least the therapists get that part right. But in part, both sides
are also wrong, because on most measures boys—at least the middle class
white boys everyone seems concerned about—are doing just fine, taking their

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