According to the media reports, lots of men are angry over perceived injustices against them. However, their anger is often fomented and directed by people who benefit from focusing their rage onto some scapegoat (e.g., minorities, women, immigrants). This allows the manipulators to keep the anger away from challenging the actual causes of most social injustice—the grabbing and hoarding of resources and opportunities by the ultra-wealthy.
Yet males generally do face real injustices in the USA. They are so commonplace that they are taken for granted, as ‘just the way things are’ (and should be).
Here is a list of things that are not normal for our species.
1. Being pulled out of mother’s womb before baby decides birthday.
a. This is based on a doctor’s invented “due date,” triggering a concern for ‘postdatism.’ But left to decide on their own (with social support), babies vary by 55 days how long they prefer to stay in the womb.
b. Technical control of birthing interferes with the natural processes of labor (which for first time mothers may take days). It disempowers mothers and undermines their confidence in their own bodies, including for breastfeeding and following their mothering instincts generally.
c. Premature birth is associated with decreased manual competence and lung function, and various developmental delays.
2. Being physically separated from mother after birth.
a. This is toxic stress because it does not allow the natural mutually-calming hormones to replace the mobilizing hormones that were needed for birthing in both mom and baby. Babies may then take weeks to calm down, and mothers may end up with postpartum depression.
b. Separation undermines breastfeeding success and immediate bonding.
3. Circumcision as an un-consenting infant that
(a) imprints the brain with pain and sexual violence;
(b) removes the majority of sexual pleasure;
(c) can cause increased sensitivity to pain;
(d) can cause alexithymia (trouble expressing emotions in words);
(e) can cause erectile dysfunction, especially with aging;
(f) supports a billion-dollar business where hospitals sell foreskins to cosmetic and other corporations to use in their products.
See our sources for circumcision information here.
4. Undercare from family and community.
(a) Though practices listed here are harmful to girls too, boys need more nurturing for longer. Why? They have less built-in resilience, slower brain maturation, and greater vulnerability to social stress (e.g., humiliation and shaming). See EvolvedNest.org.
(b) Boys need more cuddles; more patient, responsive care; more unstructured play with multi-age others; more free play in the rest of Nature.
(c) Distress, separation, scheduling of care impair boys more.
(d) And no one should be punished, ever, but especially in the first 6 years.
These greater needs males have are especially important in the first 6 years but also throughout development (till adulthood around age 30).
5. The lack of support for mothers from the community.
(a) She and the child need to feel welcomed and supported so she can provide nested care (facilitated by, for example, prenatal social support and postnatal paid parental leave).
6. Getting stuck in innate dominance hierarchical thinking and behaving.
(a) All the interfering factors listed above undermine the development of a healthy body-brain and of an integrated self. Without the needed supports listed above, the self becomes fragmented and dysregulated, causing one to rely on innate pre-human survival systems like dominance hierarchies, instead of on the prosocial intelligences that are grown postnatally from evolved nested care.
All of us should understand how abnormal these practices are for our species. And that, boys are more deeply impaired by them.
In conclusion, while many men feel they’ve experienced injustice, they need to point to the degraded systems of care, rather than blame diverse others for their anhedonia.
Point them out and change them.
References
Bergman, N.J. (2014). The neuroscience of birth – and the case for Zero Separation. Curationis 37(2), e1-e4. doi: https://10.4102/curationis.v37i2.1440
Bergman, N.J. (2024). New policies on skin-to-skin contact warrant an oxytocin-based perspective on perinatal health care. Front. Psychol. 15:1385320. doi: https://10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1385320
Bronselaer, G.A., Schober, J.M., Meyer-Bahlburg, H.F., T’Sjoen, G., Vlietinck, R., & Hoebeke, P.B. (2013). Male circumcision decreases penile sensitivity as measured in a large cohort. BJU Int., 111(5), 820-8277. doi: https://10.1111/j.1464-410X.2012.11761.x
Davis, E. P., Glynn, L. M., Schetter, C. D., Hobel, C., Chicz-Demet, A., & Sandman, C. A. (2007). Prenatal exposure to maternal depression and cortisol influences infant temperament. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46, 737-746.
Goldman, R. (1997). Circumcision, The hidden trauma: How an American cultural practice affects infants and ultimately us all. Vanguard.
Miani, A., Di Bernardo, G.A., Højgaard, A.D., Earp, B.D., Zak, P.J., Landau, A.M., Hoppe, J., & Winterdahl, M. (2020). Neonatal male circumcision is associated with altered adult socio-affective processing. Heliyon, 6(11), e05566. Https://10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05566
Montagu, A. (1968). Brains, genes, culture, immaturity, and gestation. In A. Montagu (Ed.), Culture: Man’s adaptive dimension (pp. 102-113). New York: Oxford.
Narvaez, D. (2014). Neurobiology and the development of human morality: Evolution, culture and wisdom. Norton.
Schore, A.N. (2017). All our sons: The developmental neurobiology and neuroendocrinology of boys at risk. Infant Mental Health Journal, 38(1),15-52. doi: https://10.1002/imhj.21616
Sharma, P. (2025). Do hospitals sell foreskin? The truth behind the controversy. https://www.allohealth.com/blog/sexual-education/sex-facts-and-myths/do-hospitals-sell-foreskin
Taddio, A., Goldbach, M., Ipp, M., Stevens, B., & Koren, G. (1995). Effect of neonatal circumcision on pain responses during vaccination in boys. Lancet, 345(8945) 291-292. Https://10.1016/s0140-6736(95)90278-3
Taddio, A., Katz, J., Ilersich, A.L., Koren, G. (1997). Effect of neonatal circumcision on pain response during subsequent routine vaccination. Lancet, 349(9052), 599-603. Https://10.1016/S0140-6736(96)10316-0
And see the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers.