hard to feminize, they will become more and more interested in harsh, fascist
political ideology. Fight Club, perhaps the most fascist popular film made in
recent years by Hollywood, with the possible exception of the Iron Man
series, provides a perfect example of such inevitable attraction. The populist
groundswell of support for Donald Trump in the US is part of the same
process, as is (in far more sinister form) the recent rise of far-right political
parties even in such moderate and liberal places as Holland, Sweden and
Norway.
Men have to toughen up. Men demand it, and women want it, even though
they may not approve of the harsh and contemptuous attitude that is part and
parcel of the socially demanding process that fosters and then enforces that
toughness. Some women don’t like losing their baby boys, so they keep them
forever. Some women don’t like men, and would rather have a submissive
mate, even if he is useless. This also provides them with plenty to feel sorry
for themselves about, as well. The pleasures of such self-pity should not be
underestimated.
Men toughen up by pushing themselves, and by pushing each other. When
I was a teenager, the boys were much more likely to get into car accidents
than the girls (as they still are). This was because they were out spinning
donuts at night in icy parking lots. They were drag racing and driving their
cars over the roadless hills extending from the nearby river up to the level
land hundreds of feet higher. They were more likely to fight physically, and
to skip class, and to tell the teachers off, and to quit school because they were
tired of raising their hands for permission to go to the bathroom when they
were big and strong enough to work on the oil rigs. They were more likely to
race their motorbikes on frozen lakes in the winter. Like the skateboarders,
and crane climbers, and free runners, they were doing dangerous things,
trying to make themselves useful. When this process goes too far, boys (and
men) drift into the antisocial behavior which is far more prevalent in males
than in females.^206 That does not mean that every manifestation of daring and
courage is criminal.
When the boys were spinning donuts, they were also testing the limits of
their cars, their ability as drivers, and their capacity for control, in an out-of-
control situation. When they told off the teachers, they were pushing against
authority, to see if there was any real authority there—the kind that could be