Manchild culture — let's end it

Over the last few years, Andy and I have observed a troubling trend. Increasingly, the media we encounter assumes we want to be treated like children. Note: said media doesn't just treat us like children, but it thinks we want to be treated that way, which is much worse.

Take, for example, the Britney Spears song I wrote about the other day. Britney singing about drinking shots and clubbing and wiping the floor with all the boys (not men, but BOYS) just feels inauthentic when I know she probably spends most her time at home, watching TV with her two actual boys. Why must she lie?

And now, this—a Hilary Duff music video where she and her friends swipe through Tinder and talk about boys being cute. What in the world? The whole thing seems very...young. It's basically a giant Tinder ad, but that's no excuse. The outfits and the bowling and the backup dancers—the whole video screams Christian high school youth retreat.




The worst offender of all is Buzzfeed. The listicle capital of the Internet is predicted to reach 'peak manchild' in 2016. Oh look, they actually did a post on '23 Signs You're Probably Dating a Manchild'. How meta.

So. Who's to blame?

Japan?

The music industry?

Video games?

That TV show called the Big Bang Theory?

The glorification of nostalgia?

Ourselves, for getting older?

Maybe it's the economy's fault.  Maybe the crash of '08 set us back and stunted our growth.

What do you think? I want to hear from YOU!

Your bowl-headed friend,
Margaret

P.S. And by 'manchild', I also mean 'womanchild'.