I was originally going to call this essay “The Modern Man,” but I realized that the term “man” has nothing to do with the archetype I’m going to discuss herein.
Behold, the model for Axe Dry Spray antiperspirant. Coiffured hair, carefully groomed beard, slight of build, pale of skin and utterly hairless from the neck down. Given that the Axe product line is marketed as the equivalent of a pheromonal attractor for women, we are led to presume that this model represents what the advertising agency believes is attractive to the modern female. And, as if our modern male wasn’t disappointing enough, the commercial’s voice narrator (a woman) chastises him for touching his armpit to see if the product really does go on dry.
Compare our modern male to this fine gentleman from half a century ago. Or, if Steve McQueen isn’t your type, perhaps a pre-toupee Burt Reynolds might fit the mold. Neither Steve nor Burt needed “dry spray” to “man them up” for the camera. Nor did Clint Eastwood, or Sean Connery, or Robert Mitchum, or your grandfather.
Steve, Burt and Clint were Hollywood badasses. The image they offered, and the lifestyle they lived and/or sold, was one where men were rough, tough and self-confident.
Today? Men are putting glitter in their beards. The most popular show on television is about a group of smart nerds. Seemingly every commercial on television that features a man and a woman portrays the man as a fool, as an incompetent, as a man-child, or as utterly dependent on his smarter, wiser, more sensible wife/girlfriend. Boys behaving like boys, the norm throughout the history of humanity, is no longer acceptable, and the most rambunctious are diagnosed with ADHD and medicated into passivity and acquiescence. The classic television show Father Knows Best would never be remade today, and if it were it would likely draw massive protests and feminist outrage based solely on the title.
American Thinker recently ran an article about the excision of the alpha male from our society. Reasons Ronald Bailey wrote a couple years ago about how women are leaving men in the dust both in higher education pursuits and in career motivation. An Eagle Scout was suspended from school for having a pocket knife in his car. A man who doesn’t sit with his legs cinched together or crossed over each other on the subway is guilty of manspreading, which is not only considered hogging up more space than is proper, but is actually considered to be an aggression against any woman whose line of sight is defiled by the man-spread. Boys don’t get to go out and play with their friends, unsupervised and unstructured. Parents who try to “free-range” their kids (the fact that they had to come up with a name for what used to be the norm is telling enough) have been prosecuted by child welfare authorities. Government now requires that children’s health care coverage from their parents’ insurance continue through age 26.
Then there are guns and cars. In this world of the modern male, guns are bad, hunting is barbaric, hunters are dumb hillbillies and rednecks who need to wear camouflage clothing to be “manly.” A man who buys a hot sports car? Mid life crisis or an attempt to make up for “shortcomings,” take your pick. Did anyone ever dare say anything of the sort about Steve McQueen and his Mustang, or his Shelby Cobra, or his 911? Was Burt Reynold’s black Trans Am mocked in any way? Was Clint Eastwood’s .44 Magnum considered a substitute for inadequacies? Of course not. They weren’t made men by their props, they were men who were drawn to the things men like.
As society continues to insist that everyone needs to go to college in order to have a successful life, tradesmen are in short supply. Women, increasingly college-educated, don’t want to date down, further discouraging men from joining the trades. Instead, some men try to portray themselves in that blue-collar style. Beards, lumbersexuals, retrosexuals and the like seem like efforts to front manliness without having to actually embrace it.
Many have written about the end of the American male, and the un-manning of society. Of course, many have written that this is just reflexive fear-mongering by men who are worried about their loss of primacy in society, and that the moves away from manliness are a good thing. Obviously, the latter writers are quite happy with the trend. But, in a classic example of be careful what you wish for, many of them are unhappy with the mess that modern society has become. How much of that can be traced to the un-manning of the modern male? How heavily does the lack of Gary Cooper stoicism, Vito Corleone dedication to family, Cary Grant style, or Cool Hand Luke toughness weigh on modern society?
It’s clear that men have recognized the loss of manliness, as exhibited by some attempts to recapture masculinity. Lumbersexual and retrosexual have become things. Pro wrestling, MMA and superhero movies can give vicarious doses of “manliness” to those who don’t have enough of it. Unfortunately, so much of that is about externalities rather than character. Rooting for your favorite teams or athletes doesn’t man you up if you do so in your Hulk Hogan pajamas from your parents’ basement. Appearance games allow the modern male to pretend towards manliness without actually incurring the wrath of the PC scolds and social justice types who want none of it. Manhood is about mindset, about actions, about self-confidence and self-assurance, and ultimately about responsibility. It’s not about manscaping, man-buns, or dry spray. It’s not about the shirking of responsibility, coasting through life with stoner buddies, or conforming to some feminized modern re-definition of manhood. Not everyone is going to be an alpha male, nor should they, but one doesn’t have to be an alpha to be a man. There are things that men do, and there are things that men do not do. Glitter in the beard? You know the answer.
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