Proposition: In the shifting modern narrative of gender politics, men are the new women.

The once fortified white male empire, bowed and beaten by generations of women scorned by its bloated superciliousness, has born sons they barely recognize.

We, the offspring of assured, confident, self-realized men, are emerging as a new underclass.

Statistics Canada has gathered the data.

About 60 per cent of university grads today are women.

Following graduation ceremonies that have the feel of sorority house parties, the professional outlooks for women are on the distinct upswing compared to men, national data shows.

A 2008 StatsCan study shows that, over the previous two decades, the gap in average hourly wages between men and women has been steadily shrinking. The 75.7 cents women earned on the male dollar in 1988 inflated to 83.3 cents by 2008 — nearly a 12 per cent jump.

“Between 2000 and 2008, average total income for Canadian women increased at almost twice the pace as it did for men,” StatsCan research concludes.

And the news for our later lives hasn’t improved much either, lads.

The “stronger” sex withers away well before their wives, the numbers cruelly discern. Male life expectancy for men was 78.5 years in 2006-2008, abbreviated from the 83.1 years women expect.

Beyond all of this is the widely observed transformation in male social status.

We are the emasculated deer in the social headlights of the oncoming female 18-wheeler entirely uncertain which way to move and doubtful it makes a difference anyway.

Socialized differently than any other generation of men before us, too many of us are self-doubting, fuzzy around the edges and resigned to it all.

We’ve gone from bulls in china shops to tentative kittens at the bathtub’s edge.

“It’s stunning to me that I have to take responsibility for every aspect of our lives together,” says Marcia, a 37-year-old six-figure professional, of her two-year relationship with her between-jobs boyfriend.

“From the small stuff, like picking out the restaurant, to the big financial and relationship decisions — even taking out the friggin’ garbage — it’s all me. If we ever get married, I’m going to have to be the one to buy the ring and propose.”

So why not pull the plug?

“Because the three men I dated before this were the same. It’s like you guys are in a state of paralysis that reduces you to 8 year olds.”

Ouch. That would be hurtful if we hadn’t already reached that conclusion ourselves.

“I have none of the confidence in myself or the life I will lead professionally that my dad had,” says Michael Fitzgerald, a 32-year-old Torontonian recently laid off by his female boss.

“It’s tough to just man up when you’re constantly feeling like you’re losing ground. So now I just focus on video games.”

There is another side to the gender shift: A growing revolutionary man-power backlash.

Toronto’s Men’s Issues Awareness Campaign, for example, is a fledgling pushback to the male feminization trend that seeks a realignment of the gender power scales.

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“In gender issues, it’s not as simple as women are always victims and men are always the victimizers,” says Justin Trottier, the 28-year-old leader of the campaign. “There’s a far more nuanced debate that we should be having.”

Listen to Trottier for a while and you’ll start to recognize some of the same language uttered by feminists a generation ago.

“We’re about equality and equalism,” says Trottier, who recently ran unsuccessfully in the provincial election as a Green Party candidate. “Look at the landscape and for all our talk of equality, it’s ironic that our societal investments have really been on women’s issues. We should be equally open to appreciating men’s issues.”

Compare, for example, public and private donations for male versus female health programs such as gender-specific cancer research, he says.

Or consider the array of publicly funded programs for immigrants to Canada.

“We see plenty of services for women but we don’t see them available for men,” he says. “These are stark differences.”

Then, to stretch the point, he raises the issue of public investment in shelters for domestic abuse victims.

“They are almost entirely set up for women victims but if you look at the statistics, there are a surprising percentage of cases where men are being victimized.”

Note to Trottier: Whatever the real figures, questioning the validity of public resources directed to female domestic abuse victims isn’t a likely winning strategy for mobilizing sympathy for the male condition.

Feminism may have sought the noble aim of equality.

But unintended consequence, he says, have placed male fortunes on a dramatic pendulum backswing that’s in no one’s interests, male or female.

“We’re not moving toward equilibrium,” Trottier said. “We’re marching in the opposite direction.”

Straight into the estrogen-fuelled 18-wheeler.

rcribb@thestar.ca