NICHOLAS writes:

Larissa Faw’s statement that men take more breaks, walks, and lunches out during work is accurate in my view. I’m employed in an office where a huge majority of my coworkers are female. I have one close male friend here, and we both take far more breaks and walks together during the work day than are typically taken by our female coworkers.

I believe the discrepancy has two causes, one positive and one negative. The positive one is that my friend and I crave male communion and solidarity in a sea of females, and the result has been a strong friendship with this man; our families see each other outside of work and will remain friends even after we are no longer coworkers. The negative reason that we break away from work more often than the women is in order to escape the distressing aura of petty anger and work-idolatry which flows from the embedded feminism of the office.

I wholeheartedly concur with Laura’s frequent observation that certain males, when faced with many (or mostly) females at work, will respond to this unnatural arrangement by withdrawing and/or refusing to engage fully in the competitive aspects of work.

Every week I am in at least one, and often several, hours-long meetings in which I am the only male present, or one of only two, in a group of ten or twelve folks. I am also, by far, the youngest in these meetings, being 32, while most of the women are in their 50’s or 60’s. I find those meetings to be incredibly draining physically and spiritually, and the fatigue has nothing to do with misogyny or ageism. It has everything to do with the explicitly feminist atmosphere that predominates in those meetings, where I can rely on hearing several contemptuous references either to Christianity or to evil patriarchy every session.

Well, how should I react, being myself a male and a Christian? Yes, I take frequent breaks for mental relief, and I take many walks with my male friend to remove myself from an environment I find to be so bizarre and nauseating. It would be one thing if the insults to my religion and my sex were being leveled by fellow males; I could also tolerate the hyper-female group were they largely of my own religious and political persuasion. But to face frequent meetings with women who self-identify as feminists and despisers of traditional civilization is a bridge too far. I fulfill my duty to attend, and I complete my independent work as well. But I cannot emulate my harridan neighbors by fastening myself forever to my workspace.

For these women, many of whom are either divorced or never married, this job is all that they have, and they refer to it in religious terminology. But this job is for me nothing but the particular way that God has ordained to provide me with the bread I need to lead my family. By the way, these female coworkers of mine do in fact follow Faw’s suggestion to tap into Type-A approaches to work, for many of them are workaholics who have fully absorbed the assumptions of proletarianization so adroitly described by Josef Pieper in Leisure. They accept the idea that they can and will be redeemed, here and now, by being productive workers. And they are also, as Faw suggests, adherents of both yoga and therapy, both of which practices they speak about openly and constantly.

Please follow and like us: