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TechnographColumn: Manliness: Is it really a virtue?
By John Bambanek
Posted: 6/23/06 Section: Opinions
I just celebrated my first Father's Day as a father this year. That single day, once a year, is the solitary break from the typical societal hammering of fathers and men in general.
Take a look on any television show that features a father. Usually the father is a bumbling boob struggling to keep up with his much more intelligent wife. There exists not one single show that depicts an involved and intelligent father.
While Miller Lite commercials and puerile shows like "The Man Show" celebrate what they consider manliness - what they are really celebrating is boyishness.
This boyishness has been enshrined into the gold standard of male sexual expression by feminism.
Feminism, at least the branch typically described as feminism, holds two lies as truth: The first is that all men are basically as mature as a typical seventh grader, or more coarsely, they think only with their penis.
The second is that women can achieve fulfillment and happiness by imitating these "men". The problem is that neither of the above are true.
What has happened is that by holding up seventh-grade sexuality as the model to be imitated, many of the boys emulate what has been expected of them. It became socially acceptable for "men" to bound from bed to bed.
With this, along came date rape, objectification of women and the decline of any real commitment in marriage. The reason abstinence education "doesn't work" isn't because of abstinence. It is because in every direction society is telling boys to sleep with anything that walks.
This is most decidedly what manliness is not. Despite the claims of the "adult" entertainment industry, manhood is not glorified penis-idolatry. I enjoy meat and beer as much as the next guy, but that doesn't make me a man.
Manhood involves responsibility, taking on not only the responsibility of a job, but of raising children. Real men are directly involved in their children's lives and don't relegate the duties of parenting to woman.
Take a look on any television show that features a father. Usually the father is a bumbling boob struggling to keep up with his much more intelligent wife. There exists not one single show that depicts an involved and intelligent father.
While Miller Lite commercials and puerile shows like "The Man Show" celebrate what they consider manliness - what they are really celebrating is boyishness.
This boyishness has been enshrined into the gold standard of male sexual expression by feminism.
Feminism, at least the branch typically described as feminism, holds two lies as truth: The first is that all men are basically as mature as a typical seventh grader, or more coarsely, they think only with their penis.
The second is that women can achieve fulfillment and happiness by imitating these "men". The problem is that neither of the above are true.
What has happened is that by holding up seventh-grade sexuality as the model to be imitated, many of the boys emulate what has been expected of them. It became socially acceptable for "men" to bound from bed to bed.
With this, along came date rape, objectification of women and the decline of any real commitment in marriage. The reason abstinence education "doesn't work" isn't because of abstinence. It is because in every direction society is telling boys to sleep with anything that walks.
This is most decidedly what manliness is not. Despite the claims of the "adult" entertainment industry, manhood is not glorified penis-idolatry. I enjoy meat and beer as much as the next guy, but that doesn't make me a man.
Manhood involves responsibility, taking on not only the responsibility of a job, but of raising children. Real men are directly involved in their children's lives and don't relegate the duties of parenting to woman.
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