…and it’s partly the fault, figuratively speaking, of Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie.

Obviously not in a sprawling sociological sense, and I certainly don’t mean Gerwig and Robbie themselves. I mean that men feel vaguely de-balled and uncertain and adrift because of white-male-denigrating wokester Stalinism and the feminist girlboss syndrome that these two women (among many others in elite urban circles) represent.

I haven’t seen Barbie, but who isn’t half persuaded, based on the marketing materials, that it’s largely about vengeance and assertion of power and gay guys and the sublimation (or flat-out dismissal) of straight white dudes?

Not that Barbie wants to necessarily backhand regular hetero schlubs but the film is obviously a pink and girly feminist-identity and gay-guy, yay-yay diversity thing.

“Cut loose from a stable identity as patriarchs deserving of respect, millions of downstream males feel demoralized and adrift. The data show it, but so does the general mood: Men find themselves lonely, depressed, anxious and directionless.” — from Christine Emba’s “Men Are Lost — Here’s a Map Out Of The Wilderness,” which appeared in the Washington Post on 7.10.23.