The left fueled the male crisis. Now it's shocked. | Opinion

As a mom of two boys who lived through the MeToo movement, I've long appreciated feminist author Camille Paglia's famous 1990 provocation: "If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts." It has endured because it points to an uncomfortable truth: Men are not optional to a thriving society.

Yet for years, much of our culture ‒ especially the left ‒ has sent the message that masculinity is inherently old-fashioned, predatory and unnecessary. Now, amid mounting evidence that men are declining in education, work and mental health, many of those same voices seem puzzled by a crisis of their own making.

I'm not.

A culture that repeatedly devalues men should not be surprised when so many struggle to find purpose, confidence and direction.

The New York Times finally sees a crisis

Take a recent New York Times discussion on "The Opinions" podcast, featuring Opinion culture editor Nadja Spiegelman and authors Ruth Whippman and Frederick Joseph on what healthier manhood looks like.

"Young men are in crisis," the introduction states. "While the left tells men to stay in their lane, members of the manosphere and the far right are welcoming them with open arms."

One takeaway: The right offers young men a clearer identity and community while the left berates and smears them, often just for being men.

Spiegelman puts it plainly: "If on the left what men are hearing is 'Men are trash,' doesn’t it make sense, then, that the right is their safe space?"

She notes the widening gender divide in politics ‒ men moving right, women moving left ‒ and wonders how the left brings men back.

I've observed this, too, but I found it ironic coming from The Times, a reliably center-left publication that has spent years stoking anti-male sentiment. Now it bemoans the disappearance of healthy men while struggling to explain how it happened.

Conservatives have seen this coming for years. Our left-leaning education system, mainstream media and Hollywood embraced the feminist mantra that men are no longer needed ‒ women could do and have it all ‒ and now, a generation later, they're surprised the men they sidelined are struggling.

C.S. Lewis saw this trap clearly: "We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst."

Men are struggling

Whatever its origins, that men are struggling is not in dispute. Men are now much less likely than women to earn a college degree. Their suicide rate is four times higher. They struggle more with drugs, gambling and pornography addiction.

A March Institute for Family Studies survey confirmed that young men are delaying traditional milestones ‒ marriage, children, full-time work, college. But the research pushed back on the bleakest headlines: "We find that young men care about their status, want to contribute, and are distressed by the gap between their current circumstances and what they desire for their life."

Most revealing from the survey: Young men aren't as captured by online influencers as widely reported. Parents ranked as their most influential figures; Andrew Tate ranked last. Their definition of masculinity was healthy, too ‒ sacrifice, strength, responsibility, leadership.

That's encouraging, and it may help explain why more young men are leaning right.

Male traits are good

While the left has worked to twist masculinity, often calling it "toxic," the right honors male traits as a natural and positive force in society ‒ the kind that built the things that keep us from living in grass huts.

The crisis has many causes ‒ economic shifts, family breakdown, social media ‒ but one is deliberate: the left's sustained message that men are interchangeable with women, if not less valuable. After MeToo, men were broadly vilified as sex-obsessed predators.

Instead of cultivating men's strengths, the left neutered them, pushed them aside and spent decades on feminist-centered rhetoric about empowering women. It takes real gall to then turn around and ask: Why are the men we called stupid, unproductive and worthless now angry, lonely and lost?

For years, our culture treated masculinity as something to apologize for rather than cultivate. If Paglia was right that men helped build civilization, we shouldn't be surprised that a society that devalues men struggles to produce the very qualities that keep civilization standing.

Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.