Men aren't pushed to extremes to achieve status. High achievers push themselves to extremes, where extremes are directly defined as places where other people don't push as hard.

I know we shouldn't confuse is with ought, but men in particular are very competitive in their youth, and whatever you think you can do to replace the status game will itself become a status game. Cultural wars to redefine status games are especially susceptible to becoming the new status game, because there's so much at stake; completely redefining the meaning of success, and unbalancing all the previously successful people.