Photo: ROOS KOOLE
Those guys who never quite moved out of Mom and Dad’s house into an independent life have a new champion.
Jeopardy contestant Brendan Liaw has become a sensation, declaring himself a “stay-at-home son.”
At 27, he’s unemployed and still lives at home.
And his story makes relationship trainer Julie Nise grimace. “I think of this poor guy in a relationship later on. There’s just no way he’s going to have what it takes,” she exclaimed.
While being an adult and still living at home has historically been seen as an embarrassment, Nise says fringes of contemporary culture have moved to embrace men like Liaw.“Masculinity itself is under attack, and has been for quite a while. You have these stay at home boys. And I mean ‘boys,’ even though he’s a grown man, not making his way in the world, not becoming independent. It’s absolutely horrifying.”
In his appearance on Jeopardy, Liaw took a self deprecating approach to his current living arrangement, describing it as a tongue-in-cheek way to avoid simply saying “unemployed.”
For Nise, his embrace of that status is still worrisome. “I saw this guy on TV myself and my first thought was ‘oh, how horrifying. His parents must be so embarrassed.’”
The fact that he has become a sensation, she also sees as a sign of the times. “I think there’s a scrambling on the part of the woke,” she said, “to elevate this, like ‘See? Look at him! He’s great. He’s fine.’ Well he’s not great. His growth and development are going to be emotionally and socially retarded.”
Jeopardy sensation notwithstanding, Nise says most young men, and women also, will not embrace what she calls a “mama’s boy.”