‘Why Johnny isn’t going to college’

January 18, 2006

Phyllis Schlafly, president of the Eagle Forum, can be a little odd. Just a month ago, she published an item arguing against evolution by explaining that modern biology is literally unconstitutional because it suggests that “the Constitution was written by animals and for animals.” She did not appear to be kidding.

This week, Schlafly managed to push the envelope a little further with a column, run by Townhall.com, with her explanation for declining male enrollment rates in American colleges. You won’t believe her conclusion.

The lack of college sports teams and camaraderie makes many high school boys wonder, “Why bother going to college?” […]

The Rose Bowl proved that public demand is for all-male sports, not female contests. Boys do not want to go to a college that eliminates the macho sports, and that is true even if the boy does not expect to compete himself.

The effects of the feminists’ attack on men’s sports are now coming home to roost. By the time this year’s college freshmen are seniors, the ratio will be 60 percent women to 40 percent men, and women are now crying that there are not enough college-educated men to marry.

The “argument,” if you can call it that, goes as follows: feminists hate male-dominated sports like football and wrestling, which leads colleges to drop the athletic programs, which leads young men to avoid college, which hurts families because women have more trouble finding a husband.

How serious is Schlafly about this? Consider her comparison:

China’s brutal one-child policy has artificially created millions of young men for whom no wives are available. Right here at home, the feminists have created millions of college-educated women for whom no college-educated men are available, and the trend is getting steadily worse.

Schlafly concludes by encouraging Congress to intervene and deny funding to colleges that discriminate against men’s sports. If it had run in The Onion, I might have thought it was too unrealistic to be funny, and yet, here it is on Townhall. Amazing.

I think the conclusion is inescapable; we have to send our surplus college-educated women to China. As an added benefit, it will give otherwise empty container ships returning to China from Wal-Mart some cargo to carry.

  • Jim H, you are a stone genius!! Best laugh I’ve had in a long time, and totally logical if one accepts Ms. Schlafly’s demented ravings.

  • A little odd? Massive understatement CB.

    I have a feeling that the declining rates of male college attendance is a bit more complicated than if a university has a sufficient number of sufficiently macho sports.

  • Perhaps they can’t get into college because their high school is teaching religion instead of science?

  • I agree with Curmudgeon, Jim H. I was having a totally shitty day until I read your comment and now I can’t keep the smile off my face. Many thanks!

    Growing up in Illinois, I’ve had decades of exposure to this fruitbat’s ravings. Does anyone else find it, um, interesting, that Ms. Schlafly’s made a career out of condemning career women as the root of all evil in today’s society?

    Hey Phyllis, who’s home-schooling your grandchildren while you’re running hither and yon in your panty hose? Just wondering.

  • And if only all the homely boys had found dates for the prom, all this awful feminist stuff could have been avoided, and they could have all been NFL stars!

    BTW, CB, I don’t think anything can be TOO unrealistic to run on Townhall. The Onion, maybe. But not Townhall.

  • declining rates of male college attendance is a bit more complicated

    The basic data are correct: the colleges saw their last majority male freshman class years ago, and it’s heading towards 60-40 female.

    Schafly’s ‘causality’ is seriously whack, though

    There have to be serious economic & cultural disincentives tending to keep young white men on the margins going to college.

    The good ones still go — but the ‘maybe I should go’ cadre has certainly been somewhat priced out, and maybe a little driven off by the ‘real men are pig-ignorant’-Sean Hannatzi factor, who knows?

    [Young men of color & college is, was, has been, a disaster of a whole different color. I wouldn’t pretend to have much to add there, teaching HS as I do in a very white, very rural area.]

    It’s a real enough phenomenon — whether in this case phenomenon = problem is a fruitful topic for debate.

  • Typical “winger thinking.” Find an undesireable effect (educated husband-material shortage) and blame a detested cause (equality of the sexes).

  • Once again, I am reminded of Ms. Schlafly’s seminal entry into the ranks of published writers with her defense of Barry Goldwater, the John Birch Society and McCarthyism, for which most of us took the “T” out of the last word of the title, leaving it “None Dare Call It Reason.”

    I guess I must have been a big help in overthrowing my gender’s reason to go to college, having led the successful fight to de-fund football at the Junior College California’s most famous “innocent” double-murderer attended before going on to Heisman glory at USC.

    What’s really scary about Schlafly is the number of of morons so moronic they think she’s intelligent, who follow her. She’s definite proof that Mencken was right: “nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”

  • Townhall, eh? It figures. Only a quasi-thinktank supported on GOP handouts or their wealthy patrons would actually pay for ignorant rantings like this. Breathtaking!

  • About.com has a page ranking American colleges by male/female ratio. Here are the top 25 male schools (there full list is much longer). Only 10 have football programs of any repute, and only powerhouse Georgia Tech is, oddly, in the #10 (go ahead and flame away, you Case Western Spartans). And I guarantee any woman stepping on any of the other Top-5 campuses would be mobbed by desperate men, provided they didn’t trip over their slide rules and had the courage to leave their labs and Halo networks. Hell, I bet even Schlafly could get laid at RPI.

    1. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – 75/25
    2. Clarkson University – 75/25
    3. Georgia Tech – 72/28
    4. Florida Institute of Technology – 70/30
    5. Rochester Institute of Technology – 69/31
    6. Cal Tech – 67/33
    7. Carnegie Mellon University – 61/39
    8. Lehigh University – 60/40
    9. Drexel University – 60/40
    10. Case Western Reserve University – 60/40
    11. Clemson University – 59/41
    12. University of Colorado / Boulder – 59/41
    13. North Carolina State University – 58/42
    14. Purdue University – 58/42
    15. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – 57/43
    16. MIT – 57/43
    17. West Virginia University – 57/43
    18. Yeshiva University – 56/44
    19. California Polytechnic State/ San Luis Obispo – 56/44
    20. Iowa State University – 56/44
    21. Southern Illinois University – 56/44
    22. Pennsylvania State University – 54/46
    23. State University of New York / Buffalo – 54/46
    24. Texas Tech University – 54/46
    25. University of Idaho – 54/46

    Link: http://collegeapps.about.com/od/rankings/a/u_mf.htm

  • Carpetbagger, I don’t believe the cons was written by & for animals–or if it was, I don’t care. But about the more particular issues of today’s post: I think you’re going to find that PS has more general resonance than you seem to have guessed. No, we didn’t bring in Title IX because women hated men, or men’s sports. We did bring it in because women wanted a bigger chunk of the swag–a morally neutral impulse. We’re finding–surprise!–that men and women are different in ways that we in the 70s refused to acknowledge and with which we are barely beginning to learn to cope.

    As to exporting surplus brides to China, not at all far fetched. Happens all the time, not least, e.g., from Eastern and Centrral to Western Europe. See, among many others:

    http://www.merrydating.com/index_ukranian_brides.php

    (in which I have no stake, none, nada, zilch, bupkas)

  • Between Phyllis Schlafly and John Ashcroft the rest of the country is going to think that we don’t produce anything but wackos here in the Sho-Me state. I assure you that most Missourians are not that crazy.

  • AYM

    I went to what is now called “Case.” I shall ignore your comment regarding the football team, for now. But man, you are spot on when it comes to the mobbing of women by men there. If a man didn’t snag up one of the new freshman girls in the first week of school, he would likely be dateless for the rest of the year–unless he spent some time at neighboring Notre Dame (not THE Notre Dame), John Carroll and there was one more all girls school nearby, the name of which escapes me. Ah the plight of engineering schools.

  • That list makes so much sense– after all, that is what schools like RPI are known for, their sports teams!

    (eyerolling)

    First, I love how the increased numbers of women is totally overlooked. But I guess then she’d have to acknowledge that feminism has done some good.

    Second, I don’t know why men’s numbers are declining. I have an inkling that it may have something to do with the ability of men to get traditionally male-dominated jobs that pay pretty well without college degrees. (Mechanics, plumbers, construction, etc.) I also think it has something to do with the cultural perception that being smart and well-read is a “girly” thing. Bush himself represents the anti-intellectual attitude that I’m afraid is far too common among young men. (Ignore that he went to a prestegious private boarding school, ivy league colleges, etc.)

  • Well, it would likely get me into trouble with some people whose friendship I greatly value, but I’m really having a hard time resisting the urge to post a paen to that most macho of male sports, wrestling. Think sweaty limbs in close proximity, the dizzying smell of male bodies, the growing bulge in your trunks when….. So, Phyllis, whattaya think?

    Ah nuts. I told you I was having trouble resisting it.

  • actually wrestling would make schlafly’s point. title ix is killing wrestling programs as the money for them is being shifted to women’s sports, a shift which isn’t an “attack” but a balancing of opportunities.

    there’s one “it” i don’t want to know the meaning of.

  • Arggh! I guess it depends on what the meaning of “it” is. See? I told you I was going to get myself in trouble.

  • It is clear the conservative movement has reached a melting point. A woman with this type of logic is considered one of the “smart” people in the movement?

    As to the constitution being written by animals. Perhaps we should look into that a little further. The founding fathers never expected that the nation would be ruled by an Imperial Chimp, but it sure looks that way to me.

    -GSD

  • I am with Jim H. The logical conclusion is either to A) send our women-surplus to China as Jim H suggests, or B) to get more Chinese men to come to the US to impregnate our women. I like B) better because:

    1) They know better than to question the government, so they won’t be double guessing our wise leaders, or protesting, or demanding accountability (not that it seems to be a real problem right now).
    2) They can hand-carry the Walmart goods that we so desperately need. That way we can actually save money on shipping and handling costs. Since Wal-Mart cares for America, they will pass on the savings to the American consumer and to their shareholders, and thanks to the proven virtues of trickle-down economy, we will all benefit!

    I don’t know what this lady is complaining about. If there were more educated men in this country, she would not have an audience.

  • I wonder how Phyllis is dealing with her gay son. The old myth was that a strong mother was more likely to have a gay son. She must have been devastated when he didn’t express an interest in football.
    How did she keep the coif when she was being dragged back to the cave by it?

  • I think the Republicans like the ‘man shortage’ thing. Most are on their third spouse and now they can get the ‘young chicks’ because they are available. Supply side economics wins every time.

  • Have these people completely lost their freaking minds? Or are they just trying to prove the point that they are NOT part of the “intellectual elite”? If so , they’re doing a damn good job of it.

    If Phyllis Schlafly had her way, women in this country wouldn’t be able to vote. They’d be cheerleaders first, then wives, then mothers who raise their daughters to be cheerleaders, then wives, then mothers who raise their daughters….and so on and so on.

    She’s creepy.

  • In both cases, I think there’s a good argument for female polygomy. It’s a frightening thought for us women to have to take on more than one man at a time. But, as always, we will persevere and do the right thing.

  • I am sympathetic to her argument. Being a man, I am solution-driven. I just discovered another logical solution to her problem: Why don’t we prohibit access to higher education to women? That way, any man, even those who voted for Bush, will appear relatively bright, educated, and eligible. Hence we solve the issue once and for all; of course we lose the Wal-Mart synergy (see posts above) suggested by Jim H.

  • Well being a student at Boston University with no football and 60% females…but our most popular sport is Men’s hockey.

    She’s a little wacked out, let’s not forget this is the same woman who opposed the Equal Rights Amendment saying it might actually take away the rights of women.

  • This woman is an idiot….I hope she keeps being published so that more people can witness what these jack asses stand for.

    bubba…John Carroll is co-ed, I think you’re referring to Ursuline College in Pepper Pike

  • Is this lady an idiot or what? She thinks people go to college because they want to root for sports teams? Yeah that’s why I spent $60,000, so I could root for a team while trying to study instead of at home in front of the TV.

  • This would make for more available cannon fodder (male recruits) in our “Global Struggle against Terrorism”.

  • If a male chooses to go to a college because they have a football team, rather than because he has a desire to learn and make a good life for himself, he is not “good marriage material” anyway, in my opinion. His motivation is cheap, pathetic, and shallow.
    I’m so sorry that Ms. Schafly hates herself as a woman, that must be a terrible feeling. Perhaps she would one day consider a sex change operation, to help end her self-hatred.
    I wonder if she ever considered the fact that women outnumber men in college simply because we have equal opportunities and women outnumber men IN GENERAL???

  • Why did Phyllis go to college and get an advanced degree? Why doesn’t she stay home and leave the public discourse to big powerful football players? What is it with these women who have a lot of education (they should take a logic course though) have super careers but think other women should not have the same opportunities. Other women should find and catch a husband, stay home and have children. What are Mrs. Schafly”s daughters and granddaughters doing with thier lives? Hypocrites.

  • I apologize for not reading every previous post here….but I think there is an easy explanation why interest in football has been declining, which has nothing to do with feminism…
    Simply put, many young men are now interested in “extreme sports” like skateboarding, etc. (and I don’t think feminism is responsible for this).

  • BU dumped football for three reasons:
    The head of school was driven to make things run-like-a-business
    Football was losing $3 million a year (odd in Division 1)
    Title IX compliance also needed money

  • Wrong cause, wrong school. wrong solution.

    Restoring scholarships to a tiny number of semi-pro grade college athletes isn’t going to do jack for bringing enrollment back to 50/50. Sports for the few and by the few aren’t going to cut it, and college is way too late to be looking at where education is failing boys.

    If you want to re-achieve parity in college enrollments, there should be an emphasis on physical education for *all* boys at the grade school level. Especially the ones who aren’t physically gifted. More exercise and less Ritalin and you’ve got a workable solution.

    The last thing colleges need is a bigger sportsfan contingent. Why would any institution want to attract couch potatoe students?

  • Phyllis Schlafly?? She’s still around?? The woman who is against women’s rights?? I thought she had said her piece and is now in some kitchen taking orders from some man.GET OUT OF THE PESIDENCY SPOT PHYLLIS YOU NEED TO GO BAKE ME A PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    What a joke!

  • Hey, the University of Idaho has a football team! And a basketball team, too. The young men at the UI come to Washington to get their girlfriends.
    I live between two Universities, and there seem to plenty of men at both of them. But, due to rising tuition and fee costs, the cost of living, and even less money coming in student loans and work study, few people (animals) can afford to go anymore. It’s not just men who are having monetary problems; it’s almost everybody.
    I though this was all planned by the Bush administration, so only rich people can afford college; and poor people can just get a low-paying job and stop being uppity. That’s my personal conspiracy theory.

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