All That Man Is...Apparently

I was very struck today by this blurb on the dust-jacket of a short story collection called All That Man Is, by David Szalay:

Tracing an arc from the spring of youth to the winter of old age, All That Man Is brings these separate lives together to show us men as they are – ludicrous and inarticulate, shocking and despicable; vital, pitiable, hilarious, and full of heartfelt longing. And as the years chase them down, the stakes become bewilderingly high in this piercing portrayal of 21st-century manhood.

Imagine that same paragraph with "woman" substituted for man.

It seems to be an expectation of contemporary society that we should constantly speak ill of the male sex. This is even true of anti-politically correct movements. J.K. Rowling, when it comes to the controversy that has engulfed her in recent years, generally presents it as a case of men infringing on women's rights. Critcs of mass immigration often use the phrases "military-age men" and "unvetted men". I'm not addressing those arguments here, I'm just pointing out that maleness is generally seen as a problem right across the political spectrum. Rhetorically, men are the easy target for both left and right.

I've also noticed that, if you say anything positive about men, there's a conditioned impulse to immediately say something flippant or derogatory about them. It's extraordinary.

It seems to be part of a lose-win mentality (I refuse to say "zero-sum"), where anything nice we say about men is perceived to be anti-woman. Can't we honour and cherish both men and women, in their common humanity and in their glorious differences?