Hailey Caranilla (26:28)
Never going to end. It's never going to end. They're going to run out of colors for the friggin flag. All the iterations of the flag, they had to put Tylenol on there. Now they're gonna have to make up colors. They're gonna need new colors for it. Anyway, let's get into why female pop stars are lambasting mediocre men. This is a trend in pop culture that the Economist did an article on. And they used Sabrina Carpenter, Dua Lipa, Chapel Ron, some of these pop stars as examples. And I'm gonna use Sabrina Carpenter first and foremost because that is who I listen to. I also listen to Dua Lipa some, but less so. And I don't really listen to Chapel Roan, but Sabrina Carpenter, I like her music and her music, it's, it's very. Her recent stuff is like more sexual where she shows an appreciation for men, but she also hates certain things about men. It's more of like a love hate relationship. Like she finds them attractive, but she doesn't, she doesn't find qualities about them attractive. And so this is part of this article here by the Economist. They're saying this current wave of songs reflects a social shift where women in the rich world are enjoying economic power. They can be choosier about their partners, and many are willing to hold out for someone who will do the washing up and put the toilet seat down. According to Pew Research Center, 35% of American women between the ages of 25 and 54 were single in 2023, which is up from 29% in 1990. So a lot more women are single and a lot of older women are single. So, you know, 35% of women 25 to 54, you would think more would be married. But this, this is rising quite a bit. A lot of these single women, this is. I'm part of this group as well, so I guess I'm part of the problem. So here's what it says across many measures. But from education to politics, young men and women are drifting apart. Nearly 60% of American university graduates are women. Given that most women prefer not to date or marry down for many, it can be, as Ms. Carpenter says, slim pickings. Because one of Sabrina Carpenter's songs is called Slim Pickings. And I do like that song, but I want to pull up the lyrics here, but she says, guess I'll have to end this life alone. I'm not dramatic, but these are just the thoughts that pass right through me. All the douchebags in my phone, she's saying that they're kind of stupid. The good ones are all deceased or taken. So she's just going to keep bitching and moaning. And she made a funny joke about them not really being very smart and not knowing the difference between they're there and they are so not being very grammatically intelligent, I guess you could say. So, you know, here's the thing. They're touching on these, these studies that basically prove that, you know, men and women are becoming more different and less people are dating. And among Gen Z, more women are liberal, more men are conservative. More women define success as having a career. More men define success as getting married and having a family. These used to be flipped, like everything is flipping now. Women are becoming more masculine and taking on more masculine roles, while testosterone levels are dropping among men. We are driving in separate directions. So it's no surprise that the marriage rate is declining. Less people are having children. And I think it's basic biology that's keeping men and women attracted to each other despite all these differences. And I think it's societal norms that are still inspiring people to get married. I don't think that a majority of people get married in the biblical sense of marriage, despite Christianity being on the rise among younger groups. So maybe we'll see a more intentional kind of marriage among Gen Z in, in maybe a few years as they get into that age. But people are getting married just because it's the thing to do. People are getting married knowing that they're. They don't want to have kids. I have a few friends in that situation. They're married. They. They know that they don't want to have kids. That's not what marriage was intended for. So the divide between men and women definitely has political factors. But I also think that it has economic factors as well that basically undo this traditional sense of marriage and partnership. Because most men these days in this economy, they can't provide for their family on one income alone, even if they wanted to. And that's been the case for years. And so as much as men want to blame feminism for ruining the traditional family structure, and there is truth to that, it doesn't really paint the full picture, because as the economy gets worse and it becomes more expensive to have the average 2 1/2 kids in a white picket fence, more women need to work, and thank goodness they have high paying jobs. Otherwise people wouldn't be, they wouldn't be able to afford a wedding or to have kids in general. But I think deep down, men biologically want to provide and women biologically want to nurture and have children. And in this economic climate, not many men and women can afford to do that, even though it's what their strongly held beliefs tell them. So, you know, women, now that they're making more money, they have to get rid of this expectation that men will provide and make more money than them. And that's hard. Like, I personally struggle with that. I would love to be a mom one day. And I think women are biologically wired to want to find someone who will make them feel emotionally, physically, and financially secure. And if I'm dating a man who makes less money than I do, which I've done before, I'm fine with that. But can I relax into my feminine energy? No. Women are now striving to be providers as well, because now men and women both have to provide. So therein lies the issue, right? Women are raising the bar for men, and instead of men rising to the occasion, women are having to lower their expectations and their standards. And I don't mean that to say that men are lazy or anything like that. Some are, I guess, but for the most part, I think this is a side effect of the economic state that we're in. On one hand, men will also argue that modern feminist women don't deserve to be provided for. I see this rhetoric and this narrative on social media all the time. They, they say that, you know, they throw the equality argument back into the faces of women saying, you know, well, you asked for equality, so why would we split the bill and why would I get the door for you? Like, we're equal, so you do it right. So, you know, that kind of begs the question, is chivalry dead if modern feminists get their way? And I think it does. Like, I think that modern feminists, they do kind of poo poo men who want to be chivalrous. So I can understand why men react that way. But this brings me back to the politics of it all, because it seems like liberal women are more willing to accept the 50, 50 split lifestyle. They're fine with splitting the bill. They're fine with splitting rent because they subscribe to these feminist tropes. They're okay not being provided for because they feel like, okay. And I guess we did fight for this. So, you know, this is. This is the way it is. Right? And then more conservative women will end up with more traditional men who want to provide that traditional lifestyle. So, you know, we used to see, in the 80s and 90s and early 2000, honestly, before, like 2015, we used to see people date and marry outside of their political party because it didn't really matter that much. But now political party essentially dictates how you will be treated in your relationship and what your marital structure will look like, what your nuclear family will look like, which is why I think it's become a prerequisite. Isn't that interesting? All of that, like, all of those little details and how, like, culture and society has shifted over the years.
