It’s customary for many on the Left to blame the phenomonon of neoconservatism for all of life’s ills, but I wonder if Mark Latham – ex-head of the Australian Labor Party isn’t going too far:
One of the saddest things I have seen in my lifetime has been the decline in Australian male culture, the loss of our larrikin language and values. This has been squeezed out of society by a number of powerful influences: the crisis in male identity brought about by changes in the workplace and family unit; the rise of left-feminism in the 1970s and 1980s, with its sanitising impact on public culture; and, more recently, the prominence of neo-conservatism and its timid approach to social behaviour and language. Australian mates and good blokes have been replaced by nervous wrecks, metrosexual knobs and toss-bags.
via Tim Blair
wardytron adds:
If this report in the Times is anything to go by, Mark Latham needn’t start worrying just yet:
Professor Catherine Lumby, a Sydney feminist academic who has conducted a long study of the male culture inside rugby league, dismissed Mr Latham’s conclusions about the decline of the male culture. “That’s a total load of toss,” she said.
