It's probably a good idea to implement programs specifically to lift up boys and men.

Redhotangelxxx · 2025-09-15T09:01:22+00:00

I absolutely think we should and as a feminist, I would support it! Seeing the amount of "why should I care about the success of other people and their lives" comments I see on here though I think you'll have a hard time convincing the men to take part in this too

Foyles_War · 2025-09-15T15:10:20+00:00

Interesting topic. BTW, I agree with the title. Yes, we should though I find several of your sources sus and/or weak.

I would add that the military, since it bacame all volunteer has served exactly this function for our society which is pretty weird but it is truly the most effective social program in uplifting boys, particularly, ever implemented.

It highly encourages pursuing education funding it before, during, and after active duty both in higher education and trades training providing tutoring and counseling as well as promotion benefits and financial rewards.
Same income regardless of gender, historically some promotion (and pay) benefits for being male, not so much of that anymore.
Almost always hiring.
Housing provided as are moving expenses away from mom and dad or whatever with return expenses (and extremely generous vacation time) to home of record. Meanwhile, the first sgt and other services fill in for the support towards independence. (This last is really much bigger and important than many realize).
VA loans and advice on buying and selling homes. A built in network and community that regularly moves and buys/sells from each other. Also access to other advice on investing and a retirement benefit that is beyond generous if you stay in long enough but also a 401k program.

However, I presume that "program" won't satisfy many and what is wanted is something that targets younger boys? I would suggest an aggressive program to raise teacher pay to parity with other public service jobs that require a similar level of education and training and a teacher recruitment push for men and other under represented minorties in the field of teaching. Pay for this with year round school but generous absence policies and programs that make missing a reasonable number of days of school less disruptive and difficult to catch up on for the student, the teachers and the rest of the class (this is an AI solution allowing for individual pacing and work catch up probably).

Also fund it with ditching the retitement system and moving to a 401k only system. This will be short term very expensive and long term a huge savings. It will also promote more people choosing to teach for a few years coming in from other professions and adding a dose of "real world" connection,. It will also allow teachers who burn out to leave rather than slog it out till they can get their retirement. Teachers will still hate it and fight it tooth and nail but the best and most fair solution is to grandfather anyone in the current system and implement as new teachers come in. That or have a two tiered phase in system where those who forego the retirement option are paid more.

Bonus: Year round school with generous vacation time would help parents tremendously with childcare expenses.

Next suggestion: Reinstate unstructured recess, PE as mandatory, music/band, and art in every school. Students need and deserve a break from desk work. Math, English and science are very important (so is history, dammit) but more time teaching them is useless if student's attention abilities are pegged out. For those in the higher grades who are college bound and need a full load of "reading, writing and 'rithmetic," allow after hours of community sports leagues and or other physical activity (ballet, martial arts, etc) to substitute for PE with education vouchers so no one is priced out.

Finally: MORE COUNSELORS who specialize in transitioning out of highschool - how to get into college and pay for it, what majors to choose, etc. but also finding a job or trades training.

Absolutely require schools to track graduates and publish data. I worked at a school that bragged about how many students it sent to college. What they didn't care to follow or brag about was the appalling rate of dropping out of college with the debt that includes. It was obscene how that school convinced parents and students they were ready for college with a past of easy A's for medicore performance mostly from multiple choice tests and no actual college prepratory effort.

Anyway, that's what I've got. None of it, you will note, is actually a program for boys only but then, I'm not much in favor of DEI as it tends to always get screwed up and those who benefit shoulder the burden of presumed inferiority they can never get out from under.

YeaNobody · 2025-09-15T17:23:52+00:00

Programs to teach about life maybe.....if you don't respect other people and also cannot communicate effectively with others good luck getting a job anywhere. But men don't seek help so.

Gentle_prv · 2025-09-15T21:27:57+00:00

Richard Reeves is by far one of the biggest advocates of Men’s struggles in the modern day. He doesn’t address or cover everything that the modern man deals with, but he does address at least the economic/educational aspects. I would be surprised if any rational person disagrees with any of the things he addresses, or tries to outright dismiss him.

Psykotyrant · 2025-09-15T05:13:40+00:00

It won’t happen because it’s a zero sum game. Anything that can help men is perceived as taking ressources away from women. Therefore helping men is inherently misogynistic, and men should be left to rot instead.

Sapphirerising335 · 2025-09-15T04:25:16+00:00

Here are some programs politicians have started that you can read about:

https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/press-releases/2025/04/10/whitmer-signs-directive-expanding-access-to-college-skills-training-for-men

https://www.washingtonian.com/2025/03/14/wes-moore-is-worried-about-marylands-men/

KayRay1994 · 2025-09-15T04:59:37+00:00

Here is the problem: men often seem to be uninterested in help and more often than not use these issues to attempt to one up feminists. MRAs, men’s help gurus, and so on all seem to be more interested in talking about what women are doing and attempting to put a limit on that rather than actually advocate for programs that help and support men.

One thing worth noting is that these systems that support women didn’t come from nowhere, they come advocacy from women themselves - MRAs have a horrible track record of actually advocating for productive causes they run entirely on the narrative of “women are oppressing men” - which is bs

Lift_and_Lurk · 2025-09-15T13:45:38+00:00

Can we just point out that on average 6.5 MILLION men get accepted to college every year still.

How about people actually look to what the millions and millions are doing right and see what THEY think will help?

TopShelfSnipes · 2025-09-15T04:40:11+00:00

I think there are a few things that would help:

Zero tolerance for bad behavior in school. Increased leniency with misbehaving students has become a generational issue, and as boys tend to be disruptive more often, passing disruptive kids fails to correct the behavior, and also allow disruptive students to continue disrupting non-disruptive students (and boys will predominantly cause issues for other boys). The penalties for this need to go beyond suspensions, etc. however. Taking kids out of school doesn't help them. Put bad behaving kids in specifically punitive "special needs" type classes where they will receive more homework, will have strict teachers, and will be held accountable for everything not done. FDR it and close bad schools (particularly in urban areas), then reopen them under a new name after having cleaned house of failed admins. Hold inner city to the same standards, and fail/repeat them as needed to get their act together. Statistics actually show kids improve more when held to standards. This is the "soft racism of low expectations" and it needs to end.
Hold kids back. Boys sometimes need to learn more through trial and error. Let them experience negative consequences when they're young, teach them to adapt and overcome. Stop moving them forward, and then suddenly dropping the hammer on them when they hit 18 and are completely unprepared for life.
Stand up to enabling parents. It's well known parents are often much more lax with boys on discipline. If a boy needs to be held back, hold him back. Let the parents cry and threaten to sue all they want, and school districts need to stand up for themselves, and start countersuing parents for wasting district resources instead of capitulating and passing unqualified kids.
Make excessive gaming (and porn) uncool again. Attach a social stigma around it. It disproportionally affects boys. Do this subtly through pop culture references. These become "distractions" that asocial/antisocial boys turn to that often become all-consuming. The fact that roughly 1/3 of boys are addicted to video games or play "several times a day" and 2/3 identify as "gamers" is troubling. 45% of boys say gaming hurts their sleep, which is critical to executive function and brain development, and often comes at the expense of socialization, homework/academics, or other. And 21% of boys say it's hurt their performance in school. All of these numbers are higher for boys than for girls (source).
BPA's should be reduced to the greatest extent possible now that we know their adverse effects not just on boys, but also on fertility and other things that affect all groups. Same goes for PFA's in cookware, etc. too.
More small single family homes ("starter homes") fewer luxury condos. Single family homes continue to skyrocket in price in the US because they are THE most desired type of housing. Stop building less desirable types of Housing as a stopgap, all it's doing it alleviating overflow temporarily while core demand for SFH remains high. Ban foreign investors and institutional investors from owning Single Family Homes. This will prevent Single Family Homes from being turned into rentals, largely, and allow more people to own their own homes. This will help Housing prices over time. Give 10 years to divest for those entities, to avoid shocking the Housing market. This allows more people to own their homes that they desire often BEFORE starting families, which will couple with the below item to achieve the same ends as what follows.
Better policies around paternity and maternity leave in the US. Allow FMLA to start at employee hire date, and don't t require 12 months of employment to earn. If the employee doesn't go on to work for at least 12 months (and separates voluntarily) then the employee foregoes any accrued leave balances that would otherwise be due to them at separation. Employee still gets everything owed to them if fired, terminated, laid off, etc. - this only applies if they resign. This makes it easier to have kids, particularly earlier, which is associated with lower risk of autism, fewer adverse effects in general, and would allow couples thinking of having more kids more time to do so before the biological clock runs out. So, healthier babies and larger families = more socialization in home, particularly for boys.

I'd start there.

Solondthewookiee · 2025-09-15T04:39:24+00:00

This seems like an excellent idea of the men's rights movement to mobilize for, but they seem far more interested in demanding mandatory paternity tests and complaining about who pays for first dates.

bluestjuice · 2025-09-15T16:24:52+00:00

So — the three potential causes you mention are very likely to be factors. It seems shortsighted to lay such a complex issue with so many interlocking factors at the feet of these three causes, however. I think that if we were able to magically correct these factors tomorrow, we would still see most of the demographic lagging you described up top. So the question becomes: what would be the most effective initiatives to improve educational and career outcomes for boys?

I think that could well include programs aimed at supporting boys in education. But this isn’t an easy problem to address and we shouldn’t pretend there will be an easy solution.

abaxeron · 2025-09-15T09:24:40+00:00

1) fewer college graduations

Good; less debt.

2) less income than young female peers in big cities

False. - "in 22 of 250 U.S. metropolitan areas, women under the age of 30 earn the same amount as or more than their male counterparts" - What do you think is happening in the remaining 228?

3) less employment

False, table 1 - employment-to-population ratio between young men and women were exactly the same in April and higher in men up until and including July. Women are more likely to self-report looking for a job when they don't have one though, which is how the estimate "unemployed" is formed.

4) moving out of parents home later

Good if true; less money wasted on rent.

5) buying homes less than women

Last time I checked, most women making the difference in "buying homes more than men" were elderly widows.

In terms of lifting up boys and men, I would outline prophylaxis of obesity, alcoholism, smoking, gambling, drug use, and driving while exhausted (which man-haters misinterpret as "reckless") as higher priorities (there is no use in having good employment history or owning a house when you are dead); so I don't disagree with the title, just with the reasoning.

7186997326 · 2025-09-15T05:17:09+00:00

Sounds like DEI. I thought you all hated DEI?

BobtheArcher2018 · 2025-09-15T06:43:56+00:00

Some things might be done. It is possible there should be single sex education when children are younger. Students have different needs, etc.

But there is a deeper issue. When girls were behind, a lot of the reasons were more obvious and more obviously cultural. Parents--and the girls themselves--did not have the same expectations for boys and girls. Smart girls started playing dumb as puberty hit to avoid intimidating the attractive boys they wanted. Etc.

But girls have ALWAYS done innately better at industrialized school than boys when on remotely even footings. Dealing with male underperformance compared to past males is easier conceptually than equalizing gender outcomes without holding back girls. Girls may just be biologically better suited to this type of schooling than boys. You could change the schooling to something more suited to boys, but modern schooling, for all its flaws, sorta matches modern working conditions. Moreover, the industrialized schooling structure is also economically efficient. How much more money can we throw at education? Do we want less in medicine? policing? Social spending?

It is possible that technology creates some new options that don't cost too much but also can be better tailored to the needs of both genders while properly preparing everyone for the work world.

midnight_blue77 · 2025-09-15T05:47:41+00:00

How about no.

This evil idea that boys need to be "programmed" is the reason we are so fucked in the first place.

You are asking to double down on a proven failure and scheme to dehumanize boys from the very beginning.

Boys are failing because we are resistant to the programming! We are not the defective ones here. Girls being good and meek little sheep that sit down, shut up, and obey orders are NOT the best model to gauge boyish behavior.

WebNew9978 · 2025-09-15T04:50:54+00:00

It defiantly is but there’s always these two questions that people have a hard time answering: Who’s going to pay for these programs and who’s going to run these programs?

ConsciencelessNet · 2025-09-15T11:03:44+00:00

I'm not American, but I think the right course of action would be to eliminate the programs for women and girls as opposed to building them for men and boys. Exceptional men will thrive regardless of the circumstances and there's no need to lower manhood into a state where it's reliant on programs like the ones you've mentioned.

anewleaf1234 · 2025-09-15T21:35:08+00:00

Yes, we should insist that young men are responsible for their own actions. WE should treat them to high standards and not feed into their victimhood fantasies where someone will come in help them with all their problems.

Which this is.

IF you want to think that men are victims who are unable to better their outcomes whic will lead them to paths of failure and perpetural victimhood.

But if you want to hold boys to strong standards and strong consequences when they break those standards as well as control who can incluflence them and controls on social media, I'm down.

-Shes-A-Carnival · 2025-09-15T04:04:34+00:00

who is stopping you, go ahead

Superb-Foundations · 2025-09-15T07:32:51+00:00

Why dont more men step up if they are worried about this? Do you know who runs my son's baseball team at school? The moms. Track? Moms. Boy scouts? Moms and maybe 2 dads. When I take my son to volunteer? It's just moms. The library? Moms. Tutoring center? Moms again. Sure, some of the moms might be stay at home moms, but the vast majority aren't. They spend all day at work, then take their children to things. Most grown men I know work, come home, play video games, and whine if they have to leave the house.

So. What do men suggest? Because from where im standing, moms are at the front lines. Moms are who are taking kids to the pool and teaching them to swim. Moms are the ones who teach boys how to ride bikes and throw balls. Moms are teaching boys how to fish. All of these life lessons play into building a well rounded human. Where are men?

UpbeatInsurance5358 · 2025-09-15T05:58:25+00:00

You'll have to actually start lobbying, fundraising etc.

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gokeke · 2025-09-16T15:31:40+00:00

It won’t work because guys don’t really care about social stuff. That’s something women are more naturally interested in. Guys care about physical things related to anything they can build or engineer. If it’s not something performance based or competitive, you’d have a hard time getting guys onboard naturally

Outside_Memory5703 · 2025-09-16T16:08:37+00:00

We have. It’s called reality, where men’s achievements are numerous and celebrated

Tasty-Window · 2025-09-16T18:34:51+00:00

ya but the people in charge of society don't want any of this happen

wtknight · 2025-09-15T12:22:42+00:00

A lot of young men don’t even want to go to college. I imagine that if a lot of young men start complaining about not being able to get into college, then something will be done. But, as it is, a lot of men are fine with just going into trades or with just sitting around playing video games in their parents’ house. The men who want college educations are usually getting them, too. I know several young men who still went to college and who are doing decently well.

Tricky_Dog1465 · 2025-09-15T16:40:08+00:00

Men should get on that

fucksiclepizza · 2025-09-15T04:41:09+00:00

Changing the way in which boys are parented from the get go would be a good start.

Logiteck77 · 2025-09-15T17:24:26+00:00

Society is cooked because of income and wealth inequality (which is increasingly accelerating) due to how our economy is structured. Helping men should be considered, but when they see their real wages go down through no fault of their own, due to economic conditions. We have to ask ourselves if we're tackling the most relevant part of the problem.

alwaysright0 · 2025-09-15T06:35:27+00:00

I disagree with your causes. Most of the outcomes listed are down to choice

But yeah. There's lots we could be doing to help boys from poorer backgrounds.

Tackling wealth inequality and poor education outcomes can only ever be a good thing

Particular_Trade6308 · 2025-09-15T07:16:07+00:00

I’m generally concerned that men-centric solutions won’t change much because attraction might be relative rather than absolute.

There are countries with high levels of male college grads, men with good incomes, etc, but those countries still have low rates of family formation and plenty of lonely incels.

Example, the Netherlands:

much narrower education gap, women are 52% of grads versus almost 60% in the U.S.
small gender pay gap (smaller earnings gap for young people)
more women than men in the main metro area

Despite all of this the singles rate for young people is like 50% (I’m quoting the non-cohabitating rate specifically) and I am finding articles about how hard it is to date for young Dutch people. I can’t say whether it’s worse in the NL than the U.S. but the NL might be a dream scenario (average male height is 6ft lol) but nevertheless still a dating fiasco.

This suggests hypergamy means attraction is relative, so no matter what kinds of boosts you give to me, the top 10% or 20% or whatever the number is will capture most of the attention.

GridReXX · 2025-09-15T18:00:17+00:00

I don’t think men in general (not all men) are organized or purpose-driven enough to do this.

I think programs for boys and young men are a great idea. In my community, there are and have always been countless programs for young boys. Most started and maintained by the women in the community.

Lots of the programs for young males are grassroots and originated out of economically marginalized or historically disenfranchised communities. I guess they have more grit, resilience, and the drive to build and maintain these programs. I think Obama even had a “My Brother’s Keeper” program during his presidency.

I see a lot of regular middle class white guys complaining online, but not a lot of them organizing IRL and uplifting the male youth in their community 🤷‍♀️. Don’t see them volunteering to be camp counselors or Eagle Scout troop leaders.

TLDR: Programs to uplift young males exist. They’re not championed by, created by, attended by, or supported by dudes who complain the most. I think their complaining is lazy lip service. They’re not ready to do the work.

Edit: You’re saying boys are more ADD because of BPA (biphesonol A)? And that there are more male dunces than female dunces because of BPA? I would’ve assumed it’s an offshoot down-funnel consequence of testosterone interplaying with various aspects of male cognition and physiology. If it’s solely because of BPA then why doesn’t BPA affect girls in these listed ways? I reckon ADD/ADHD behaviors were prominent in more males than females before the whole “microplastics in the food” phenomenon. What I think is that BPA and other environmental factors may be exacerbating biological sex-based differences that have always existed.

StrangeReference7003 · 2025-09-15T11:14:06+00:00

There are lots of them out there. Bit if you want to start another one go right ahead.

SexCrispies · 2025-09-15T08:14:56+00:00

We need 100% college education and 100% graduation for all genders and sexes. Get grandparents back into college, pay everyone the same wage, let AI and robots do all the work. Have everyone vote for the same party, have no differing values and thoughts. Everything needs to be the same for everyone. And if they don't want to, we will force them to be the same!

AnonPinkLady · 2025-09-16T03:54:42+00:00

I’m all for positive changes to infrastructure that actually help disparately impacted groups without unnecessarily harming the rest. Go for it. Actual change to potentially systematic issues instead of such a heavy focus on access to sex would be a breath of fresh air.

BirdLawOnly · 2025-09-15T15:07:19+00:00

Males are just less effective at every day life. Why waste resources on a waste?

AchingAmy · 2025-09-15T04:02:17+00:00

I think it'd be better to prepare men for their roles in a female future instead

Morgoth_Worshipper · 2025-09-15T06:50:19+00:00

Males are still privileged as fuck in everything, they really don't need anymore privilege.

James_M_Croft · 2025-09-15T17:44:52+00:00

No need. Just make programs to help the gifted. And put objective methods to measure it. There will be boys exclusively.

Title	It's probably a good idea to implement programs specifically to lift up boys and men.
Author	Ok-Appointment992
Upvotes	162
Comments	369
Date	September 15, 2025 3:53 AM UTC (10 months ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/1nhbqf5/its_probably_a_good_idea_to_implement_programs/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/its-probably-a-good-idea-to-implement-programs.1562011 https://theredarchive.com/post/1562011

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