The only thing worse than a woman playing with her hair at Mass

...is a guy playing with his.

This retro shaggy-dog look so in vogue among the younger male population has never made any sense to me, any more than the craze for Crocs or Justin "I like to sing like a girl" Timberlake. If my husband ever decided to start looking like this fellow to the left, I'd have to file for separation.

What's up with the girly-man chic?

I read a while back that birth control has the effect of making women attracted to effeminate men.

Scientists say the hormones in the oral contraceptive suppress a woman's interest in masculine men and make boyish men more attractive.... If the theory is right, it could partly explain the shifting in tastes from macho 1950s and 1960s stars such as Kirk Douglas and Sean Connery to the more wimpy, androgynous stars of today, such as Johnny Depp and Russell Brand.

Good thing I'm not on birth control.

It's a no-brainer that the rise of radical feminism has also contributed to the emasculation of the male sex. The most blustering, strident women are always the most insecure, I've found, and none are more shrill than radical feminists. Gloria Steinem once said, "We've begun to raise daughters more like sons... but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters." Courage? Stupidity's more like it. (The woman who once denigrated marriage ended up marrying Christian Bale's father later in life, and it's said while she was pontificating at dinner, Christian turned to her and said, "For God's sake, woman, shut up." Longtime Bale fan here...)

I'd like to tie this all in to the emasculation of the priesthood, but Fr. McLucas will do a better job than I can, and it's three o'clock on a Sunday and I'm going out to enjoy the Spring weather with my son--who, as far as I can help it, will never grow up to be a girly man.