On being a man...

[the_epic]

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Of course most of you have noticed in the recent past I've begun working on trying to become more of a man, and I've been doing this because of the influences of the strong, powerful men in my life - past and present. Say what you will about the idea of being a strong, powerful, manly man (and God help me I know some of you will) but I've been influenced by the best (in my eternally humble opinion.) Many of my male relatives were the sort who took no crap, brooked no misandry, dressed well, treated people with respect and honour and were generally fantastic and upstanding people. These were and are men who would not stand for racism, sexism, who married powerful and wonderful women, and found homophobia to be distasteful and unacceptable in their worlds. They dressed themselves well, kept good care of their bodies, knew how to cook, clean, fix and thank and (as the song goes) always helped someone in trouble.

And I think that such things should be, if not the domain of human beings in general, then certainly the domain of a strong and powerful man. The above video quite appropriately discusses the modern situation for a gender which possesses an almost saddening lack of ability to declare pride in itself without getting into trouble, or in the case of many of its ilk, looking like complete tools.

I don't believe this is an acceptable spot for me in my life, regardless of whatever it is I happen to be up to or enjoying, and believe me - my life is about enjoying things. Lust (mostly just flirting) and food and violence (which I see as more speed and sports,) as Dire Straits put it, are needed for those of us who want to run cool. Which means, essentially, you can do all of the above without harming.

So to all the men out there who can hear something from the above man (whose awesome blog www.artofmanliness.com is a truly wonderful site*) then I say good on you - and let's see what we can do about making ourselves a world of stronger, more useful men, free of homophobia, sexism, racism and all the other tainted bullshit which makes humankind's past (and present) a less than admirable place.

Anyone hear me?
Anyone with me?

* As a side note it is also one of the only websites that offers decent advice on relationships, grooming and being a dude (check the section on shaving) without falling into the Men's Health, Maxim and AskMen.com trap of playing off the insecurities of the male. If you don't know what I mean, check out the advice columns of those above places and note how they assure us that we cannot possibly be correct in an argument, and that your wife, your boss or your best friend is never going to listen to you unless you act like some sort of child-man sycophant. Compiled with the constant bombardment of bad advice on sex and women, which makes them all out to be cold and heartless, or stupid and slutty - well, you get it. I have subscriptions to both, and may not be proud of that fact.

** Also for the record Manaissance is a really, really stupid term. Which apparently doesn't register as a spelling mistake.
I'm not sure what I think about this. Retrosexual I'm ok with, though (and it is a spelling mistake!) I'm a rebel.