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So I believe it was Mae West to (have) said in 1932, "It's not the man in my life that counts, it's the life in my men." But it turns out that Mae West may have been under what is possibly a dying breed. No less an institution than Harvard has been wondering whether or not manly men are in fact on the wane. And Bill Wales is here to look at it.
Oh, Diane, you know, manly men that can also mean er destructive men, self-absorbed, sometimes misogynistic men. And a feminist gender-neutral societies got a long way towards breaking up the He-Man Women Haters Club. But according to manliness, say a thought provoking new polemic, we should stop pretending men and women are equal, and brace the inner caveman and let guys be guys.
Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, cool, independent, self sufficient.
"He is looking at you, kid"
No doubt, a very manly man. But what about the men of today?
Manly, definitely manly.
He is manly, but just in a different way. (He's like soft manly.)
Manly, yes, the Terminator thing.
Manly or not?
Manly, yes. (You can be honest.)
Not.
Not?
Absolutely not.
No.
No.
Not manly.
Not at all.
Not even a little bit.
Take heart, Tom Cruise, you are not alone. Because according to a controversial new book, America's on the verge of a manliness crisis.
Men are still free to be manly, but there is no justification for it. There is no welcome for it, no respect for it.
Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield wrote Manliness and he defines it as confidence in the face of risk. Think Gary Cooper in High Noon, President Bush, and on the dark side, even Sadam Hussein. Women like Margaret Thatcher can be manly, and even the cowboys of Brokeback Mountain. But manly men deserve to be cocky, Mansfield says, after all, they built the world.
We are losing the contribution that manly men can make, and we are er, confusing women and men who don't quite know what to do about manliness.
He says we should stop pretending women are equal in all tasks, and he says women should stop pretending they want something else in a man.
He is so sensitive. But what women wouldn't want a sensitive man?
Women may say they want a sensitive man but they don't always love one. They are sometimes much more attracted to a manly man, who maybe more oblivious of their needs and their desires but impresses them more.
Whether or not they want macho? More modern women may be yearning for old-fashioned roles, in a recent survey of 5000 couples, the happiest wives said their men support them financially and emotionally. A Bogart who cuddles.
I mean it takes a lot of energy to flex your muscles all the time, you know, it's nice just to relax.
Now convincing them to do the ironing, that's a whole other thing. Critics accuse the author here of trying to turn back the clock. But his basic premises, "We should let women be women, guys be guys".
So he says it's men who build the world, huh?
Yes.
Yeah, tell that to Eve, Ok!?
Touche.
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