A Shocking Turn in the War on Men - Richard Reeves

TL;DR

Richard Reeves argues the political landscape for boys and men has dramatically shifted, with governors and Congress now actively pursuing men's health and education policies.

Key Points

• 1.Real political progress on boys and men has finally materialized. Governors Newsom, Whitmer, Wes Moore, and Spencer Cox have launched serious initiatives; two bills were introduced in Congress for a men's health strategy and post-fatherhood mental health support.
• 2.The 2024 election was a wake-up call for Democrats. Democrats lost men, especially young men, by huge margins, and Reeves' inbox flooded with Democratic outreach — many governors pursuing these initiatives are also potential presidential candidates.
• 3.Governor Newsom signed an executive order requiring comprehensive plans for boys and men. It covers K-12 education, employment, and mental health, plus a male service challenge targeting 10,000 men into mentoring and coaching, and a push for more male teachers.
• 4.Virginia is close to creating the first state commission on boys and men. If the new governor signs it, it would sit alongside the existing commission on women and girls, institutionalizing the issue beyond political cycles.
• 5.Reeves' goal is to make this issue boring and mainstream. He wants the problem to be so routinely addressed through offices and programs that advocates no longer need to fight for basic recognition.
• 6.Men's rights activists often resist wins because their identity is tied to grievance. Rabbi David Wolpe's observation that 'activists are psychologically reluctant to succeed' captures why some dismiss executive orders and commissions as insincere.
• 7.Concept creep undermines advocacy movements over time. The word 'racism' in the New York Times skyrocketed while actual racism declined — slaying smaller dragons makes causes less legitimate and easier for opponents to dismiss.
• 8.The show Adolescence functioned as an ideological Rorschach test. Almost all mainstream commentators interpreted it the same way; UK politician Kemi Badenoch was bizarrely criticized for not watching a fictional drama as if it were a documentary.
• 9.The UK released its first ever men's health strategy and held a serious parliamentary debate on men's mental health. All MPs told a dad joke organized by the group Dad Shift on International Men's Day, with Wes Streeting participating.
• 10.The word 'masculinity' itself now codes negatively because young men have only heard it paired with 'toxic.' Even using it neutrally signals to young men that something bad is coming, hollowing out any positive cultural framing of manhood.
• 11.The key message young men need is 'we need you,' not 'poor you.' Reeves co-wrote a piece with Robert Putnam about how early 20th-century civic organizations like Boy Scouts were built by men to serve boys after urbanization — a model worth reviving.
• 12.Looks maxing may become the third wave of the manosphere, focused on male-to-male competition rather than female attraction. Research suggests women prefer average or slightly feminized faces with masculine bodies, yet looks maxers pursue extreme jaw and cheekbone morphology signaling formidability to other men.
• 13.Young men experience 'masculinity vertigo' — contradictory messages on alternating days. Monday: man up, be more dominant, work out. Tuesday: cry more, find your feminine side. This whiplash drives boys toward whatever fills the vacuum, from Tate to looks maxing.
• 14.The 'second shift' statistic that women do 25–30% more housework collapses under scrutiny. 'Full-time' is defined as 35+ hours, but full-time dads average 45 hours versus 35 for moms; adding paid and unpaid work together totals roughly 60 hours per week each — Suzanne Bianchi called contributions 'amazingly similar.'
• 15.Millennial fathers now spend as much time in primary childcare as mothers did in 1985. Despite the deadbeat-or-doofus media framing of dads, hands-on fathering has seen its biggest increase in roughly half a century, according to Reeves' forthcoming research.