As some people have already indicated, the article is correct in identifying a trend. Young people (notice the gender-neutral term) prefer to take their time these days, instead of hurrying up to marry and have children, and men are especially tempted by this notion.
So... my reaction to reading that was "Why the F... not?"
If people choose to live their lives the way they want until they're in their 40s, who's to say this is good or bad? I don't buy into the whole "marriage and parenthood makes you a man" concept, I've seen too many good couples ruined by the rush to have children.
In any case, men are at a disadvantage in our society, when it comes to it, because they're likely to be hit with alimony and other such "pleasantries" if they make a mistake... so why, then, would you wonder that they're much more cautious before tying the knot?
Here one more thing... in the 60s, many people ended their education at the high-school level. Nowadays, college/university is the norm, and we're really seeing the trend for making graduate education the standard.
This means that people are finally "out" in the world at the age of 25, instead of 18, like the previous generation (assuming 30 years as the standard generation length)...
Add this factor to the reality that the world has really opened up in the last few decades, that we're healthier and live longer, and that people have understood that it's good to try various things to enrich their lives, and the entire article becomes a hollow shell, from a bitter and disappointed woman.
Also, I am having such a kick from reading your reactions, that I'm going to paste here some of the best:
Originally posted by: skace
Cliffs: God for*fucking*bid you watch television, play video games, read maxim or go clubbing. Your job is to finish schooling, get a job, marry my ugly ass, have kids, go to work, come home from work and do everything I tell you to and then repeat that until the day you die. I hope I never catch you smiling during any of that either.
Originally posted by: Special K
She seems to suggest that a man only has 2 places in life - either he is an immature guy whose only source of entertainment is pr0n, video games, and beer, or he is responsible and has a wife, house and kids. What about something in between? Can't a guy be mature and past the drunk/random hookup phase, but not ready for a wife and kids, and/or not own a house? Who is she to define what a guy's life goals must be?
Originally posted by: vi_edit
Women joining the workforce and making their own career has eliminated the necessity of a man to provide for them. They don't want to stay at home and crank out kids like they did for the past how many centuries. So the men don't have to grow up and take care of somebody else. The women don't have to grow up and take care of somebody else. Both sides are unburdended by a lot of baggage and responsibility.
Originally posted by: jagec
Written into this article is the innate assumption that all men are ignorant savages who need mature female guidance to hope to achieve adulthood.
Originally posted by: MisterJackson
Women wanted their independance and ability to date around. They also are getting married at a far older age now, if they marry at all. This "Man-child" syndrome she speaks of is only a logical answer to this new age woman.
Originally posted by: SSSnail
No, women want it all; the power, the money, the promiscuity... but when they hear their biological clocks ticking, and haven't really done much to prepare for motherhood, they realize that all that power and money and promiscuity are for naught, hence the article.
Originally posted by: ktehmok
Amen. You wanna "keep your options open"? Then don't expect a ring. Expect men to treat you the way they perceive you.
Originally posted by: SlitheryDee
This article is written on the presumption that women automatically begin adulthood at the "proper" time, while men must be "made" men by interaction with, and defined by, women. How dare these SYM's shirk their cultural responsibilities by doing such inane things like being promiscuous (with their seemingly willing female counterparts), going to "the club" (where aforementioned females so innocently happen to be), and playing video games (an activity which few females seem to understand, and therefore cannot tolerate), when they should so obviously be searching for a wife to dote upon and fold clothes for.
Please. The jobless man in "About a Boy" is hardly the poster child for today's twenty-something man, and and our ardent refusal to settle down and provide you with a stable, uninteresting life filled with foot massages and babies isn't a sign of male degeneration. Female dependence upon men is at the root of this article, or else the author would have been so aloof and oblivious of this perceived "issue" as to have not noticed it at all.