From the blog, Reading Notes, via the Ochlophobist:
Though I am generally impressed with their prose style, I am always struggling to take the litanies of Esolen & Co. complaints seriously. Sometimes I want to sit back and imagine that “Anthony Esolen” and “S.M. Hutchens” are pseudonyms for some outstandingly clever satirist who is trying to show what the world would be like according to the dictates of man-children held captive by an almost perverse fascination with medieval legends as models for living and an adolescent schoolgirl’s approach to morality.
My only comment is that such obsession with “victimization” seems to deflect and cheapen the plight of people who are actually victims. Also, Esolen once again exploits a real problem to spread his crypto-medievalist myopia about the “crisis of civilization”. To speak of a “crisis of boys” in the broader context of today’s humanity seems like a veritable comedy of errors in a world where, let’s face it, women still get the short end of the stick in most places.