A long time ago I volunteered to accompany my son's elementary school class on a field trip to an old sailing ship docked at a pier on the San Francisco Bay. I was put in charge of the boys. Naturally, they were excited to be on an old sailing ship and a bit rowdy, pretending to be pirates and the like, stuff boys do. Nothing too bad in my estimation.

Suddenly the teacher yelled at me to get the boys under control. The other women chimed in to yell at me. I was flabbergasted. They wanted the boys to behave like the girls! I still haven't got over it. I was raised that "boys will be boys" and you had to let boys run free within limits to work off their energy. They never asked my to volunteer again.

Since then, I'm not surprised by some of the problems that have arisen, but I admit I could be an old guy out of touch with the new reality. I do feel bad for my son now, who is a decent guy, single, raised by old school feminist parents, when he tells me some of the horror stories of how young women have weaponized social media against young men, at least that's how he tells it.