No More Mr. Nice Guy! by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page A

work outside of the home, birth control provided new freedom, and women's liberation was in its infancy. Some mothers during the Baby Boom era could foresee a change in gender roles on the horizon. They worked to prepare their sons and daughters for what was to come. Many of these mothers raised their daughters to not need a man. At the same time, they trained their sons to be different from their fathers — peaceful, giving, nurturing, and attentive to a woman's needs.
    Radical feminism in the '60s and '70s projected an angry generalization about men. Some feminists claimed that men were the cause all of the problems in the world. Others asserted that men were merely an unnecessary nuisance. More than likely, the majority of women during this era did not feel this way about men. Nevertheless, enough angry women were significantly vocal to contribute to a social climate that convinced many men that it was not OK to be just who they were.
    Epitaphs like "men are pigs" and "all men are rapists" were prominent during this time. Less angry slogans of feminism asserted that "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." Men who were already conditioned to look to women for definition and approval were especially susceptible to these kinds of messages. This added incentive for these men to try to figure out what women wanted and try to become that in order to be loved and get their needs met.
    Soft Males And Boy-Men
    Robert Bly, the author of Iron John , writes about how the social changes of the Baby Boom era created a new breed of American men. Bly calls these men "soft males."
    He writes, "they're lovely, valuable people — I like them — they're not interested in harming the earth or starting wars. There's a gentle attitude toward life in their whole being and style of living. But many of these men are not happy. You quickly notice the lack of energy in them. They are life-preserving but not exactly life-giving. Ironically, you often see these men with strong women who positively radiate energy. Here we have a finely-tuned young man, ecologically superior to his father, sympathetic to the whole harmony of the universe, yet he himself has little vitality to offer."
    From a different perspective, Camille Paglia comments on how the social changes of the last five decades have changed roles of men and women. "The hard-driving woman has to switch personae when she gets home. She's got to throttle back, or she'll castrate everything in the domestic niche. Many white, middle-class women have dodged this dilemma by finding themselves a nice, malleable boy-man who becomes another son in the subliminally matriarchal household." ("Politically Incorrect Desires," Salon: Issue 49)
    Regardless of whether we call these men "soft males," "sensitive new age guys," or "Nice Guys," the unique combination of social events in the post-World War II era reinforced and magnified the messages that many little boys had already received from their families — that they weren't OK just as they were.
    These social events further amplified the belief that if they wanted to be loved, get their needs met, and have a smooth life, they had to hide their flaws and become what others (especially women) wanted them to be.
    My observation in recent years points to the reality that the conditioning described above did not end with the Baby-Boom generation. I am seeing more and more young men in their twenties, and even teens, who demonstrate all of the characteristics of the Nice Guy Syndrome. Not only have these young men been effected by all of the social dynamics listed above, even more grew up in single parent families or were raised by Nice Guy fathers. As I write this, I expect that we are just beginning on our third generation of Nice Guys.
    The Habits Of Highly Ineffective Men
    As a result of the family and social conditioning described above, Nice Guys struggle to get what they want in love and life. Due to their shame and ineffective survival