Ruminating on Young Beta Males

I've been getting some very interesting comments about the Alpha Male series from guys ages 18 - 35. I'll call them Beta Males for no good reason, except like a lot of beta software they are busy testing and testing and testing all limits and all established ways of thinking and working and living. And yesterday I heard Warren Bennis talk about his new book which discusses the way his generation (he's a brilliant vital sexy 77 years old) defined and lived their lives and how that generation of younger folks is currently living and how DIFFERENT many of their choices are. This younger group is very concerned about striking a balance between work and life. In fact, it occurred to me that if you really want to know "What Ever Happened To Feminism" ask guys ages 18 to 35 -- they are egalitarian, they are progressive, they are vehement about a balance of fun, work, learning, sex, parenting, travel, sports, love, passion on all levels.

As I listened to Warren talk and especially as he presented an interview with Crandall of American Airlines, a prototypical stern, austere ball-breaking Alpha Male who spoke about "work-life balance" as if it were something perfectly REVOLTING in his mouth which he'd like to spit out and wash down the drain, I suddenly wondered -- were these the fathers of that younger generation of men who abandoned them? Were these the alpha male dads who were never home, never at little league, never affectionate and has that shaped these younger men's attitudes about what they want from work and family? They seem more keen on this than women of their generation. I feel off of their emails a sense of loss about their fathers and no interest in repeating the absentee dad/alpha male at work role.

I think they may lead us out of the woods these smart young caring guys. I can't wait to watch what they do in this new world they are building. Bennis talks about "the crucible" -- that is, the difficult situations that form a generation. Imagine the crucible of 9/11 and the go-go-fall-flat internet boom-bust years. Unlike Crandall's post-depression and post-war generation, these younger folks have gone through even more devastating losses in some ways. They will not chose the lives of their fathers, these young men. And these young women will not live like their glass-ceilinged moms or any other generation of women before them, because they will have AMAZING men to live and work with.