Mooks and the Disappearing American Male

Or how to avoid raising a mook

Bob Bowman is a father of 2 teens so far. He is a family physician who works with a variety of patients and families. He works to educate medical students. His passion involves better care for poor and rural peoples. He is a Christian who believes in restoration of people, families, and communities.

Disclaimer: Females still lag in income per position, educational level, etc.

In recent months I have become ever more aware of how males are disappearing from college (60% female), higher education, and medical school. In those pre-admitted to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, 14 of 18 rural admits are female and 7 of 7 minority pre-admits are female for a whopping 84% female.

In Nebraska in 1969-70 59.4% of bachelors degrees were earned by males, by 1996-7 this had declined to 43.9%. The national figures were 56.8 and 44.4, respectively. These gender gaps were magnified by poverty or lower levels of education in parent(s). The only degrees not impacted by a rise in gender gap were visual and performing arts, education, and english. Foreign language/literature was the only category with a significant gain from 25 to 30% male. Health profession bachelor degrees (nursing, pharmacy others) awarded to males declined from 22.9 to 18.5% http://www.postsecondary.org/archives/Reports/GOUCHER111599.pdf

There are many influences on teens growing up, but perhaps none is as striking on behavior and education as the increases in those without a significant father. Statistics of a Fatherless America

In the absence of a father's influence, there are many other factors involved in growing up. These can be magnified by peers. Some of these may influence young teen males such that they will never grow up. Charles Colson in a Breakpoint commentary on 1/24/2003 notes the following:

Miller (Brewing Company) has drawn fire, to put it mildly, for this latest ad, named "Catfight." Laura Ries, a media and image consultant, called the ad "degrading" and "explicit" in USA Today. Miller acknowledged that married women with families, especially those over forty, are especially put off by "Catfight."

But then, these women aren’t Miller’s target audience. The beer company claims to have hit a "home run" with twenty-one- to thirty-one-year-old males who, Miller claims, see the ad for what it is: an "insight into guys’ mentality" and "a lighthearted spoof of guys’ fantasies."

In other words, Miller is saying that every young American male is at heart what advertisers and media experts call a "mook." A mook is a perpetual adolescent. He is pre-occupied with sexual matters and cannot rise above the level of the trivial.

Can it be that it has become all too easy to fall prey to a deadly array of video games of all types, sexually explicit materials (television, movies, internet, phone numbers, magazines), fast cars (commercials, movies), mind-altering chemicals, and permissive schools and parents.

We have only recently realized that power of advertising and deception regarding tobacco. Is it so hard to believe that marketing can help create mooks, perpetual adolescents?

Has the attraction of immediate gratification overcome the possibility of building a rewarding professional career?

In about 3 weeks my son will turn 18. He has clearly fallen prey to all of the various influences possible. In some ways he has overcome significant obstacles when growing up, but he is running out of time to complete the process. In reflection on his teenage years, his major strides in maturation have come when the distractions were completely removed for months at a time (freedom, car, friends).

How long will it take us to realize that we cannot afford to expose our children and teens to influences that will make them perpetual dependents, on us as parents, on others later in life, and on government? Is there a susceptible child and teen population that suffers greatly from premature exposures to such material?

In discussions with the women who were admitted to medical school, they appreciated the education and family values that helped them get where they are. Sadly they are already stressed at the prospect of finding a male who shares their interest in career, education, and family.

Have we forgotten that behaviors contribute greatly to health costs? Looking at the array of problems with fatherless children, it is clear that we will face massive increases in health, education, prison, and other costs. It was smoking cessation in men years earlier that resulted in the first declines in overall cancer mortality in the early 1990's, not the massive expenditures on research and the billions expended on advances in treatment . National Cancer Institute studies as reported in Primary Care and Cancer Volume 1 number 1 page 6

Should we be looking more than ever at certain categories in medical school applicants growing up in such environments, categories such as maturity, exposures to mentors and mentoring, and service orientation?