1. @aoscott has meaty thoughtful piece about "The Death of Adulthood in American Culture".I have some issues with it: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/magazine/the-death-of-adulthood-in-american-culture.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad&_r=0 …
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Replying to @HeerJeet
2. Scott's piece argues that both patriarchy & adulthood are in a linked crisis, under siege from a rising feminist culture.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
3. That bald summary simplifies things slightly since Scott acknowledges long-running American flight from responsibility (Huck Finn, etc)
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4. And the rising feminist culture is girls taking on the prerogatives long enjoyed by bad boys: Lena Dunham as the new Alexander Portnoy.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
5. One big problem is, as I noted in piece on Frank Miller, that patriarchy is always in crisis but never goes away: https://storify.com/jeetheer1/frank-miller-and-the-perpetual-crisis-of-masculini-1 …
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Replying to @HeerJeet
6. Rhetoric of "we are not men our father's were" has been used to shore up male privilege since at least time of Homer.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
7. Fear of the decline of patriarchy is inextricably from patriarchy: it's an essential rhetorical weapon by which authority is shored up.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. Of course, Scott is well aware that he's talking about long-running thing, and strong feature of piece goes back to 18th century
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Replying to @HeerJeet
9. One problem with piece is it accepts conflation of patriarchy with adulthood (despite nod to mothers near end of piece).
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Replying to @HeerJeet
10. Are patriarchs necessarily adults? Aren't patriarchs in fact often big babies: using inherited power to be coddled & looked after?
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11. It's instructive to compare Scott's essay with the polemics Wyndham Lewis wrote in 1920s and 1930s (Time & Western Man, etc.)
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Replying to @HeerJeet
12. In 1920s Lewis decried how "Western Man" was becoming infantilized, blaming mass culture, feminists and "the homos."
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13. Lewis criticized writers like Hemingway and Gertrude Stein for alleged childish baby writing that eschewed executive will & intelligence
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