Chivalry

The mimetic collapse of the modern family unit We are witnessing a profound shift in how young adults perceive the foundational structures of society. According to recent data, 40% of young adults now believe marriage has outlived its usefulness. This isn't just a change in preference; it is a reflection of a broken template. In cities like London, half of all children will reach the age of 15 without living with their biological father. When young people look at the world around them, they don't see a thriving institution; they see a failing one. This phenomenon is best understood through the lens of mimetic desire. We want what we see others wanting. As families become less visible and motherhood is increasingly framed as a burden rather than a joy, the desire to replicate those structures vanishes. Louise Perry notes that fertility is socially contagious—if your sister has a baby, you are more likely to have one. Conversely, in a culture where childlessness is the norm, having children begins to feel like a radical, even irrational, deviation. This downward spiral has led to an evolutionary bottleneck, particularly in countries like South Korea, where birth rates have plummeted to levels that suggest a 96% extinction rate over the next century. Technological disruptions of the sexual marketplace The sexual revolution was not merely an ideological shift; it was a technological one. The invention of the pill removed the "glass ceiling" on licentiousness by decoupling sex from its primary consequence. Historically, most women had to take sex seriously because it was the most consequential action they could take. Today, that risk is mitigated, but at a hidden cost. Perry argues that we are transitioning from a period of extreme licentiousness back toward a new kind of prudishness, driven by the realization that the status quo isn't making women happy. This "new prudishness" is visible in Gen Z, where nearly half of young people report that sex is unnecessary for the plots of movies and TV shows. They are reacting against a pornified culture that has stripped romance of its nuance. Furthermore, the physiological impact of hormonal birth control cannot be ignored. Research by Dr. Sarah Hill suggests that these drugs alter who women are attracted to, often leading them to choose men with lower testosterone levels—provisioners rather than protectors. This creates a recursive loop: women on birth control select for less masculine men, while men's testosterone levels drop in response to the lack of fertile signals in their environment. We are effectively engineering a society of "placid, soy-based" individuals who lack the drive for traditional pairing. The mirage of economic liberation Modern feminism has sold women the idea that true freedom is having sex like their brothers and working like their fathers. While women have entered the workforce in record numbers, they are finding that the "second shift"—the combined burden of professional work and the lion's share of domestic labor—is exhausting rather than empowering. In Iceland, women recently went on strike to protest the gender pay gap, yet Perry argues that the "pay gap" is actually a "maternity gap." The labor market is fundamentally at odds with human reproduction. There is a dark irony in the fact that as women have gained financial independence, they have lost the protective structures that once shielded them. Chivalry is often dismissed as patronizing, but it served as a social contract recognizing the physical asymmetry between the sexes. When we dismantle these "fences," as G.K. Chesterton warned, we often find that the thing we destroyed was the only thing keeping us safe. The MeToo movement revealed the predatory nature of the modern sexual marketplace, yet the solution—consent workshops and legalistic definitions of sex—fails to address the underlying moral bankruptcy of a culture that treats people as disposable commodities. Social contagion and the mental health crisis The mental health of young women is in a state of freefall, with 60% of girls aged 12 to 16 reporting persistent feelings of hopelessness. While boys suffer too, girls are uniquely vulnerable to the "witchy" sensitivities of social media. Instagram and TikTok create a distorted pool of intersexual competition. A girl in a small town is no longer comparing herself to her peers; she is competing with airbrushed, surgically enhanced celebrities. This leads to what Perry calls "mimetic mental illness," where conditions like anorexia or even Tourette-like tics spread through social clusters like a virus. The same social contagion is visible in the explosion of gender dysphoria among teenage girls. Historically a male-dominated diagnosis, it has become a female-dominated one. This is the ultimate expression of the desire to escape the burdens of womanhood in a culture that devalues the feminine. We encourage girls to undergo irreversible surgeries, leaving them "permanently dependent on the kindness of strangers" to validate their fragile new identities. We have traded the hard-won wisdom of our ancestors for a series of high-stakes experiments, and the results are being written in the depression and anxiety of the next generation. Conclusion We cannot return to the 1950s, but we must stop lying to ourselves about the costs of the present. The path forward requires a honest appraisal of human nature and the recognition that there are no solutions, only trade-offs. If we continue to prioritize short-term pleasure and economic utility over the structures that allow a culture to reproduce itself, we are not just progressing; we are fading away. Growth happens when we align our lives with the material realities of our biology and the deep psychological needs for connection, protection, and purpose.