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Science Confirms: Millennial Men Have Pansy Handshakes

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In a new study, researchers measured the grip and pinch strength of more than 200 men and found the modern man has much weaker hands than his father did three decades ago.

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Science confirms what my dad has said about all of my ex-boyfriends: millennial men have weak handshakes.

In a new study, researchers measured the grip and pinch strength of more than 200 male college students between 20 to 34 years old throughout North Carolina and found the modern man has much weaker hands than his father did 30 years ago.

In 1985, the average male could squeeze with 117 pounds of force. Today men squeeze with an average of 98 pounds of force — which is roughly equivalent to the average among women in their early 30s, according to a newly published study in the Journal of Hand Therapy.

“In 1985, the typical 30-to-34-year-old man could squeeze your hand with 31 pounds more force than the typical woman of that age could,” Christopher Ingram writes in The Washington Post. “But today, older millennial men and women are roughly equal when it comes to grip strength.”

As Ingram explains, the decline in hand strength has a lot to do with the changing workforce — men today are more likely to work a desk job than do something with their hands. But I think hand strength also says a lot about the state of higher education — an arena where women are thriving and men are dropping like flies.

It’s no coincidence that men who actually make it to college are more physically similar to their female companions today than they were three decades ago, since our educational system is designed for those who posses feminine qualities such as the ability to sit still for long periods, conduct group discussions, and talk about soft social issues as opposed to serious academics.

Study after study confirms that K-12 teachers are biased against boys in their classrooms. They hand out lower grades to students with more masculine names, even when they actually answer more questions correctly.

Girls get better grades and feel better about their achievements in the classroom. Boys are more likely to receive failing grades, feel frustrated about their coursework, and act out in school. According to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, boys account for 71 percent of all school suspensions. This likely has something to do with the fact that boys are more measurably harmed by our society’s spiraling family breakdown.

Consequently, the average eleventh-grade boy reads at the level of an eighth-grade girl, which means fewer high school boys are prepared for higher education and colleges must draw from a depleting pool of male candidates.

When our K-12 education is rigged to favor girls, it’s no wonder these book-smart beta males can’t shake your hand — our schools have been punishing them for being boys their whole lives.