I'm lucky. My life has been reasonably successful and my
wife is a well regarded med school professor. I've always supported women's
liberation and their aspirations and it's worked out well.
But there's an ad that gets everyone laughing that makes me
wonder how well it's working for other guys. It's a State Farm commercial where
late in the night a dumb looking guy gets a call from State Farm. He's on the
phone when this shrewish woman grabs the phone from his hands and asks, "what
are you wearing, Jake from State Farm?" His response is
"khakis." I laughed at that commercial until I realized that's
the way a lot of men and women may look at married life. You've got the dumb
guy supervised by the woman who's really street-smart.
To the extent that it captures the way men feel, then it's a
disaster. We were hoping for equal, not turning the tables. This doesn't mean I
don't believe the glass ceiling is a reality. This doesn't mean I don't think
women make less money than guys for doing the same job. It does mean, however,
that we don't quite have our heads on straight yet. Maybe we guys have to seek
a re-definition of what manhood is.
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