It's no mystery why Maddow has become the darling of the progressive blogosphere: She's one of them. Aside from the minor fact that she doesn't actually have a blog, she otherwise fits the bill quite nicely. She's young. She wears those black hipster glasses (or did--before MSNBC's makeover squad got to her). She worked as a barista. And most importantly, she's an unabashed geek who loves talking (and arguing) about policy: Before taking up hosting duties on Air America, she wrote her dissertation about AIDS and served as a prison-reform activist. Meanwhile, her academic credentials are impeccable. Want to send a liberal into a swoon? Just start quoting from Maddow's resume. She got her B.A. from Stanford! She was a Rhodes Scholar! She has a doctorate in political science! From Oxford! (Trust me--no liberal can discuss Maddow without mentioning the D.Phil.)

How did American men get themselves into such a mess? And how do we get them to grow up already? (Or should we even try? For guys in crisis, the slacker man-children in Apatow's movies seem to be having an awful lot of fun.) No matter. It's time to put away childish things--and that includes the remote, the copy of Playboy, and the Wii. Or so say man's latest self-appointed saviors, columnist Kathleen Parker and sociologist Michael Kimmel. American masculinity is in crisis, both say, and something must be done.

Labels: gender wars, journos, shameless self-promotion