Michael Kimmel is the author of the book Guyland. Guyland is about a perilous world where boys become men. It presents a disturbing wake-up call for anybody that is a boy, loves boys, or is raising boys. It is about a new stage of development for all young people. It used to be that you finish your education, get a job, move out of your parent’s house, get married and have children and then you would be considered an adult. On average this used to be completed by the age or 21 or 22. Now the average age for all of these mile markers is 28 or 29.
Kimmel explained by he believes that this is happening in four basic stages. The first one is because people are now starting to live longer then previous generations. The second reason is because of economic transformation. Most people will not have the same type of careers that people before did. It used to be that you followed the family business, if you father was a plumber you were to become a plumber. If he was a lawyer, you were to become a lawyer. Now people are starting to follow their own dreams. You also have to keep in mind that corporations are no longer as loyal to their employees as they used to be. Where our grandparents would have worked at the same place their entire career we will now be switching places of employment a bunch of times throughout our working career. Another reason that these developments are changing is because the parenting style has changed. Now parents raise children in a style, as Kimmel stated, known as “helicopter parents.” It is the over involvement of parents in their children’s lives. For example, those parents that fights for their children about being on a sports team when in reality the child didn’t make the team because they were not good enough, not because the coach “had it in for them.”
Kimmel stated that part of the motivation for this work comes from two contradictory ideas. “Oh my God, they are growing up so fast!” and “Will they ever grow up?” The first one is because children now are more technologically and media savvy then they used to be. The second one has to do with the failure to launch syndrome like living at home until the “child” is 35 years old. Both of these ideas are true in their own way and I can think of people that I know that can fit into both categories.
I must say that I had not ever heard of Michael Kimmel before seeing this lecture. However, he has intrigued me enough by talking about his writing and his ideas that I have already ordered Guyland so that I can read it too.
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