fact, hiding a deepseated lack of confidence. Many boys who seem to be doing well are actually living lives of quiet desperation. You or I may unwittingly be the parents of just such a boy.
             What do alarmist psychologists blame for boys' traumas and disorders? In the 1960s, everyone worried about the condition of girls. Back then, feminists argued that girls and women were victimized by the traditional sex roles depicted in "Father Knows Best" and many children' s books. Sex-role stereotypes were thought to encourage independence, assertiveness, and ambition in men while mandating dependence and docility in women. Moreover, society supposedly preferred male traits to female ones, viewing the latter as unhealthy. Feminists complained that these stereotypes were not only confining but also degrading to girls. Carol Gilligan saw sex-role stereotypes as most damaging in adolescence, when girls first came to understand that their "different voice," which emphasized interconnection and harmony instead of individuality and competition, was not appreciated by a male-dominated world.
             Feminists had a solution to this "girl problem": Raise both little girls and boys to be androgynous. Androgyny, a grab bag of masculine and feminine traits, would liberate not only females but also males from the tyranny of sex roles. The androgynous person would exhibit a blend of desirable male and female characteristics--for instance, assertiveness and nurturing. In an androgynous world, females would be assertive and males sensitive, and everyone would be better off, for equality between the sexes could only be achieved when females acquired masculine traits and when males softened their rough edges.
             Enter today's problem. Psychologists who now believe that our boys are in trouble attribute their current trauma to both the traditional sex-role stereotypes attacked by feminists and to the androgynous society proposed to rectify them.
             For starters, they cl...