????如今，許多黑人女性似乎都很難找到一位合適的伴侶。羅森認(rèn)為，類似于亞歷山大市的經(jīng)濟(jì)困局也將導(dǎo)致接受過高等教育的白人女性出現(xiàn)類似的趨勢(shì)，她們或許“會(huì)與黑人女性一道，形成一種新型的中產(chǎn)階級(jí)，結(jié)婚正逐漸成為一件稀罕事。”

????羅森的理論并不牽強(qiáng)。畢業(yè)于大學(xué)的女性多于男性。有關(guān)方面列舉了30個(gè)有望成為未來(lái)10年最具就業(yè)前景的專業(yè)領(lǐng)域，女性在其中20個(gè)領(lǐng)域的就業(yè)人數(shù)占據(jù)了壓倒性優(yōu)勢(shì)。男性（特別是在類似于亞歷山大市這樣的地方）卡在了就業(yè)方式的舊有格局及其未來(lái)發(fā)展趨勢(shì)之間。“現(xiàn)代經(jīng)濟(jì)正逐漸變?yōu)橐粋€(gè)女性制定規(guī)則，男性緊緊追趕的場(chǎng)所，”她這樣寫道。

????非常令人遺憾的是，羅森并沒有使用整本書的篇幅來(lái)研究類似于亞歷山大市這樣的地方。在這些城市，“男性的終結(jié)”似乎正在成為一個(gè)切切實(shí)實(shí)，令人不安的現(xiàn)象。在每個(gè)篇章中，她對(duì)場(chǎng)景及其采訪對(duì)象的描述似乎跟用于實(shí)質(zhì)性內(nèi)容的著墨一樣多。這本書讀起來(lái)令人愉悅，但無(wú)論筆觸多么動(dòng)人，她的整體描述并不令人信服。

????比如，羅森在書中提到瑪麗莎?梅耶爾時(shí)，說她是“谷歌公司（Google）職位最高的女性”。但其實(shí)并非如此。任職谷歌公司期間，梅耶爾確實(shí)是曝光度最高的女性高管【她現(xiàn)在是雅虎公司（Yahoo）掌門人】，但谷歌公司高級(jí)副總裁蘇珊?沃西基的職位排名始終比她高。雖然這是一個(gè)小失誤，但沃西基的職位是眾所周知的，羅森無(wú)意間犯下的這個(gè)錯(cuò)誤使我不由得對(duì)書中許多總括性的陳述產(chǎn)生了質(zhì)疑。

????此外，羅森還指出，在與科學(xué)和工程相關(guān)的研究領(lǐng)域，年齡在25歲至39歲的女性多于同一年齡段的男性。雖然這個(gè)陳述本身沒錯(cuò)，但讀者覺得她是在有意操縱這些數(shù)據(jù)，以進(jìn)一步佐證她的整體論點(diǎn)：受過更好教育的女性正在促使勞動(dòng)力群體的女性化。現(xiàn)實(shí)情況是，大學(xué)畢業(yè)后，女性在醫(yī)學(xué)、法律和商業(yè)領(lǐng)域表現(xiàn)得非常優(yōu)異。但在科學(xué)、技術(shù)、工程和數(shù)學(xué)等領(lǐng)域，女性的優(yōu)勢(shì)就沒有那么明顯了。

????另一項(xiàng)值得商榷的觀點(diǎn)是：“也許我們正在接近這樣的時(shí)刻：男性不再追憶過去，不再為所有的‘真男人’已經(jīng)死了感到煩惱，而是任由自己被一種全新文化重新塑造，盡管其方式或許不那么令人舒適。”我向一位好友朗讀了這段話的內(nèi)容——我們倆都23歲，剛剛在喬治城大學(xué)（Georgetown University）度過了4年時(shí)光，其間就生活在羅森所說的那些將在一個(gè)女性世界中展現(xiàn)“靈活性”的新一代男性中間。我的朋友笑出聲來(lái)，他說：“但愿這是真的，然現(xiàn)實(shí)并非如此。”

????羅森似乎更擅長(zhǎng)人物特寫，而不擅長(zhǎng)宏大敘事。相較于每個(gè)章節(jié)包含的動(dòng)人的個(gè)人故事，她對(duì)宏大性別議題的描繪似乎要遜色得多，關(guān)于種族、社會(huì)經(jīng)濟(jì)、宗教和代際轉(zhuǎn)移等方面的陳述往往給人淺嘗輒止之感，這也使得羅森的“男性過時(shí)論”很難讓男性讀者接受。與那些探討探討女性暴力和單身母親現(xiàn)象（為了量入為出，這些婦女不得不長(zhǎng)時(shí)間工作）增長(zhǎng)的文字比較起來(lái)，書中對(duì)大學(xué)校園“逢場(chǎng)作戲”文化、視婚姻為奢飾品的現(xiàn)象，以及富有權(quán)勢(shì)的女性高管（特別是硅谷中的女性高管）的分析就顯得非常瑣碎。

????羅森在書中為韓國(guó)單獨(dú)設(shè)置了一個(gè)篇章，試圖以此說明全球經(jīng)濟(jì)正變得越來(lái)越“依賴女性的成功，盡管這個(gè)進(jìn)程受到了韓國(guó)本土大男子文化的阻撓。”這個(gè)章節(jié)雖然讀起來(lái)挺有趣，但卻讓人覺得有些格格不入——特別是當(dāng)它出現(xiàn)在本書結(jié)論之前的時(shí)候。羅森是否在暗示，在任何地方，無(wú)論其制度、宗教文化、家庭結(jié)構(gòu)和經(jīng)濟(jì)地位有多么不同，男人的霉運(yùn)都已經(jīng)注定了。就如同凌晨3點(diǎn)鐘飲下的美酒一般，這段針對(duì)亞洲女性的短暫陳述非常引人入勝，但或許會(huì)讓讀者感到頭暈?zāi)垦＃偎疾坏闷浣狻?/p>

????女性新發(fā)現(xiàn)的經(jīng)濟(jì)自由是一條引線，防止本書一眾隨機(jī)性的描述對(duì)象墜入截然不同的方向，但這條引線還沒有達(dá)到足夠強(qiáng)大的程度，足以支持羅森就美國(guó)男性、女性和婚姻的未來(lái)發(fā)表的那些總括性結(jié)論。

????毫無(wú)疑問，美國(guó)夢(mèng)現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)改頭換面——被涂染了一層睫毛膏。但羅森撰寫的這部著作并沒有表明，女性在受教育程度方面的主宰性優(yōu)勢(shì)和經(jīng)濟(jì)獨(dú)立性意味著男子氣概的滅亡。接受羅森采訪的耶魯大學(xué)（Yale）校友克萊爾?戈登認(rèn)為，接受過高等教育的女性“需要花點(diǎn)時(shí)間仔細(xì)想想她們究竟想要什么，以及如何提出這些要求等問題。”面對(duì)令人震驚的經(jīng)濟(jì)和文化變革，所有的男士或許也應(yīng)該這么做。

????譯者：任文科

????Today, many black women seem to have trouble finding a suitable man. Rosin believes economic woes in cities like Alexander City will cause a similar trend among college-educated white women, who may "join their black counterparts in a new kind of middle class, where marriage is increasingly rare."

????Rosin's theory isn't far-fetched. Women graduate from college in larger numbers than men. They dominate 20 of the 30 professions projected to add the most jobs in the next 10 years. And men, especially in places like Alexander City, are stuck between the way things were and the way things are progressively moving. "The modern economy is becoming a place where women are making the rules and men are playing catch up," she writes.

????It's a shame Rosin doesn't dedicate the entire book to studying places like Alexander City, where "the end of men" seems to be a real and troubling phenomenon. She pays as much attention to the descriptions of setting and her interviewees as she does to the factual meat of each chapter. The book is an enjoyable read, but her entire portrait, no matter how beautifully painted, is unconvincing.

????At one point, Rosin refers to Marissa Mayer as the "highest-ranking woman at Google." That's not true. Mayer was certainly the most visible female Googler (GOOG) during her tenure at the firm (she now runs Yahoo (YHOO)), but senior VP Susan Wojcicki always ranked higher. Though a minor point, Wojcicki's position is well known, and Rosin's careless error made me question the reporting behind many of her sweeping statements.

????Rosin also notes that women aged 25-39 are crowding out men in fields of study related to science and engineering. While that's true, the numbers feel manipulated to further her overall thesis that better-educated women are feminizing the workforce. The reality is that women are doing well after graduation in medicine, law, and business. But science, technology, engineering, and math? Not so much.

????Another pause-worthy moment: "Maybe we are approaching the moment when men stop looking back, fretting that all the 'real men' are dead, and allow themselves to be molded by the culture in new if uncomfortable ways." I read that passage to a friend -- we're both 23 and spent the past four years at Georgetown University with the new generation of men Rosin believes will be 'flexible' in a women's world. My friend laughed out loud. "Wish that were true -- but yeah right."

????Rosin is better at close-ups than landscapes. Her attempt to cover gender at large -- with fleeting focus on race, socioeconomics, religion, and generational shifts -- detracts from the fascinating personal stories each chapter contains, and also makes Rosin's argument about the obsolescence of men hard to follow. Analyses of the college hook-up culture, marriage as a luxury good, and powerful women executives (particularly those in Silicon Valley) feel trivial next to those that discuss a rise in female violence and single mothers working long hours to make ends meet.

????A sole chapter about South Korea, representing a global economy becoming "dependent on women's success … despite resistance from local versions of macho culture," is interesting but feels out of place -- especially as it comes just before the book's conclusion. Is Rosin suggesting that men are doomed everywhere, regardless of varying regimes, religious cultures, familial structures, and economic statuses? Like a 3 a.m. nightcap, this brief excursion on Asian women is tasty but will probably leave readers dizzy and confused.

????Women's newfound economic freedom is the thread that keeps the slew of random subjects from falling in very different directions, but that thread isn't strong enough to support Rosin's sweeping conclusions about the future of men, women, and marriage in America.

????No doubt the American Dream has gotten a makeover -- with an extra coat of mascara. But Rosin doesn't demonstrate that women's educational dominance and financial independence spells the death of manhood. Claire Gordon, a Yale alumna whom Rosin interviewed, believes that college women "need a little time, to figure out what they want and how to ask for it." Amid shocking economic and cultural change, maybe that's all the guys need, too.