Those Delicate Millennial Males

Trigger warnings. Microaggressions. These distinctive (and annoying) terms have popped up in recent years in reference to millennials, since many people believe they are weaker than other generations, emotionally and mentally.

While calling them “special snowflakes” may be up for debate, one thing is not: Millennials are physically weaker than previous generations, according to a recent study in the Journal of Hand Therapy.

With Jaden Smith and other celebrities happily sporting skirts, one has to wonder how we got here.

Occupational therapists at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina examined Americans ages 20 to 34 and found young men’s grips to be weaker than their 1985 counterparts. Back then, men could grip, on average, 121 pounds with their right hand and 105 with their left. Today, men grip only 101 and 99 pounds.

“As a society, we’re no longer agricultural or manufacturing,” study leader Elizabeth Fain told NPR. “What we’re doing more now is technology-related, especially for millennials.”

It’s true we rely much more on technology today than on saws or scythes. Texting and video games require Sheldon Cooper valor — not Paul Bunyan brawn. But the differences between generations and strength do seem to go beyond the mere physical.

Some people wonder if their grip on masculinity is also tenuous, as evidenced by some millennial celebs.

With Jaden Smith, 18, and other celebrities happily sporting skirts (Jaden had a line of them in his 666 clothing collection) and the rise of “metrosexual” celebrity men such as David Beckham, Ryan Seacrest and Orlando Bloom — one has to wonder what the heck happened.

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Even the late Kurt Cobain rode down the slope of male femininity when he wore skirts and said, “I definitely feel closer to the feminine side of the human being than I do the male … Just watch a beer commercial and you’ll see what I mean.”

But now it’s not so unusual to see celebrities like Justin Bieber wearing skirts onstage. How did we arrive at this new androgynous perplexity? Especially since no private of the Greatest Generation ever demanded a “safe space” and equality with his officers during World War II — or paternity leave and a comfortable dress to wear at the office.

International market research firm YouGov published a survey in May titled, somewhat depressingly, “The Decline of the Manly Man.”

Related: Where Have All Our Manly Heroes Gone?

Without inquiring about sexual orientation, evaluators asked 1,000 American men to answer various questions using spectrum scores ranging from “completely masculine” (zero) to “completely feminine” (six).

[lz_infobox]Though 65 percent of men over age 65 said they were “completely masculine,” only 28 percent of men ages 30 to 44 and 30 percent of men ages 18 to 29 did so.[/lz_infobox]

The authors of the study wrote, “Today, in 2016, gender roles have been transformed as the percentage of men who stay home to take care of children increases, and women begin to beat men in academic achievement and are slowly closing the income gap.”

A Pew Research study also reported earlier this year that more 18- to 34-year-olds are living with their parents than at any other time in the modern era. Besides this, those living with a spouse or partner continue to decline. (Can you imagine Bieber married and living as a functional adult with children?)

“For men, living with parents reflects that they are doing relatively worse in the job market than they used to,” the Christian Science Monitor noted. “Overall, employment among age 18-to-34 men has been falling since it peaked in 1960 at 84 percent.”

In the face of unemployment, a stagnant economy, student loan debt, changing gender roles, the absence of marriage, radical feminism, and women outranking them in enrollment and GPA at universities across the country — millennial men have seemed to respond with man buns, skinny jeans and “Pajama Boy,” the literal poster boy holding a cup of hot cocoa in President Obama’s health insurance campaign.

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Do millennial men need men to live up to the masculinity of previous generations? Are young men in a downward spiral when it comes to a sense of self and traditional values?

San Diego State University social psychologist Dr. Jean Twenge might not have answers to those questions, but she does understand one thing: Young people are unhappier than ever. Her extensive research, as well as others’, indicates American youth have felt increasingly anxious and depressed since the 1930s. No one, however, truly understands the multifaceted and manifold reasons.

Twenge does offer one bit of wisdom to hang on to, though, telling New York Magazine, “I think the research tells us that modern life is not good for mental health.”

And when Jared Leto and Jaden Smith — macho Will Smith’s son, as a reminder — sport girls’ clothing, we do wonder about mental health. Theirs and ours. Most prefer “Men in Black” — not men in skirts.