RA#2 The Death of Macho

In Reihan Salam’s, “The Death of Macho”, he discuses how the recession in 2008 will have a far greater effect on men than it will women, and in turn we as a culture will begin to see a shift in power. His appeal to the reader is targeted to a wide array of audience members because of his language and subject matter one could assume this is written for adults of both genders. The article discuses how the economic downturn is due to the over confidence of those in control of the countries money namely men on wall street, but he does not limit the effects to only those men that created the problem. Salam’s main message throughout the piece is that economic growth is leaning towards the favor of those residing within the female gender, and that men need to be accepting of the changes that are inevitably going to come.

Salam references how there have been work force shifts from men to women in financial power before in other countries, but these societies were also patriarchal, and the need for power remained a constant for the men. This resulted in a male populous without a direction to point their disappointment, and the societies didn’t fair well. When a society is built on the structure of male dominance and that dominance shifts it may have nowhere to go. Even though Salam says, “Of course, macho is a state of mind, not just a question of employment status” (Salam 630), he makes a statement not that the word “Macho” is a what makes a man physically, but a statement of status and you must be employed to maintain that status.

Throughout the piece he makes a plea to men to not allow “Macho” to be end of our society as it had been for so many other societies in the past. Salam discusses the fact that it was men who were the ones who created the mess. He brings this up because the men at the top of the banking industry caused the housing market crash.  With examples like Lithuania a society as it’s written in the book quoting a newspaper after the first female president, “Lithuania has decided: The country is to be saved by a woman”(Salam 630). This is important because it shows to his intention of requesting men set aside their obsession with “Macho” and understand a new beginning is on the rise for America.