Inside The New Male Mind:Radio Host Tom Leykis Teaches 'Lost Boys' How To Be 'Men' Tom Leykis, one of the newest entrants into the daytime radio shock-jock arena, is in many ways the moral opposite of Dr. Laura, the conservative talk-show host who promotes Old Testament values. Like Tom Cruise's character in Magnolia, Leykis encourages men to go after what they 'really want:' sex. With a new documentary out, Blow Me Up Tom, and his radio show, The Tom Leykis Show, ranked number one in Seattle and Los Angeles, Leykis is well on his way to reaching the same sort of uber-chauvanist icon status as Howard Stern.

David Walker of Portland, Oregon's alt weekly Willamette Week explores the growing phenomenon of 'lost boys' who pay daily homage to Leykis' words. 'It's not a movement in any traditional sense of the word, but more like a new subculture of Lost Boys, a steadily increasing number of men -- most between age 25 and 40 -- who, depending on your point of view, are either postponing adulthood or are defying the conventions of what adulthood is supposed to be.'

Walker points to the late '60s and '70s as the birth time of lost
boys. A time when divorce rates doubled, as did the ranks of single parents. 'The image of a lasting relationship was shattered for a generation of kids who had to listen to their mothers say 'Daddy is an asshole' and their fathers counter with 'Your mother is a bitch.''

'The feminist movement gave women the freedom to live lives without men. Women don't even need a man to father a child anymore,' Walker writes. 'Could it be that the Lost Boys are just a consequence of the brutal reality that many guys now feel obsolete?' he asks.

Leykis responds: 'That only happens if a man lets it happen. I tell guys, 'Just don't give them the cash, and then we'll see how obsolete we are.'' -- Sara V. Buckwitz
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