Today's new girly men
June 11, 2005
By Janice Shaw Crouse
If you believe the latest Yahoo news, the trend for 21st century men
is more Alan Alda than Arnold Schwarzenegger.
They say girlie men are "in"; macho guys are "out." In other words,
Gentlemen's Quarterly (GQ), with its emphasis on fashion and vanity
products for men, has replaced those action-guy magazines featuring
football, racing or fishing. Well, Roger Horrocks, a critic of popular
culture, warned long ago that masculinity in Western culture is in
crisis. A closer look at today's males could prove his case.
Those quoted in the Yahoo article – granted they are mostly French –
claim that qualities such as "authority, infallibility, virility and
strength" are being replaced by "creativity, sensitivity and
multiplicity." Instead of being a "family super-hero," they claim,
today's men are "hybrid" – meaning they want to wear "pink-flowered"
shirts and try out "partner-swapping clubs."
Wait a minute. What's this about "partner-swapping clubs" being part
of the package? Where did that come from? These are supposed to be
fashion statements and trends in types of men who are "in fashion."
How did we get to lifestyle recommendations?
Ah, now the agenda becomes obvious. It's not about tracking trends;
it's all about selling homosexuality and fashionable carrying cases
for condoms!
Wait another minute. The report casually mentions that Europe's
fashion industry is "in the doldrums" requiring governmental "aid
packages" for textile enterprises. Might there be a connection between
this new "vision" of masculinity and the downturn in sales? In an
unrelated article, British critic John Dugdale questions whether or
not there is enough demand for the new type of men's magazine. With
his own lingo for "girly men," Dugdale asks, "Are there really 150,000
soft lads out there?"
Dugdale's question is an important one because these Frenchmen seem to
be doing a lot of wishful thinking – the article is not so much
reporting trends as selling values: Masculinity is about how you look,
what you wear and where you live, not what you are or what you do with
your life. There are thousands of guys in Iraq who look pretty good in
camouflage!
The Yahoo article also points out a significant change in
demographics: a growing elderly population. I can see it now: senior
citizens in pink-flowered shirts flocking to partner-swapping clubs. I
don't think so.
Could this be a case of a Fashion Group (6,000 fashion industry
professionals) sacrificing short-term financial profits for long-term
ideological gains? After all, there have been occasional complaints
about the focus on "penetrative sex" and "assertive heterosexuality"
in men's magazines leading to performance anxiety and emotional stress
among some men – poor things! Just think what they are going through
watching the heroics of the American soldier in his tank or marching
with his unit.
Looking deeper into the promotional text of the Yahoo article, there
is praise for the Reebok advertising campaign "I am what I am," and a
consultant declares that people want to "be in charge of their own
lives." People today will not tolerate, he said, "any lack of
autonomy."
Now we get to the crux of the issue: the desire to overthrow all
social, religious and cultural boundaries in order to live however one
chooses to live. In the year 2000, a European magazine published an
article about the politics of men's fashion. The three authors wrote,
"The great prize of bachelorhood is ... a life where one has little
responsibility for others and where one is truly free to do as one
chooses ... living a life of consumption and sexual freedom."
Two years later, the term "metrosexual" was coined to describe a man
who has "clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as
his sexual preference."
Somehow such thinking is strangely "retro" in the real world that is
today. These guys are hopelessly out-of-step with the trends and
values that are driving the "real men" of America – those fathers who
marry before they have children, those men whose waking hours are
devoted to wife and family, those men who work for a living in
honorable, conscientious and dependable ways, and those men who
cherish into old age the love of their youth.
Janice Shaw Crouse, senior fellow of Concerned Women for America's
Beverly LaHaye Institute, writes regular columns on cultural,
religious and family issues
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| User: "Tom" |
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| Title: Re: Today's new girly men |
14 Jun 2005 04:20:41 AM |
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wrote in message news:<1118493239.b561848c0e67d927875cbe83b1adc2f1@teranews>...
Today's new girly men
<snip>
Those quoted in the Yahoo article ? granted they are mostly French ?
claim that qualities such as "authority, infallibility, virility and
strength" are being replaced by "creativity, sensitivity and
multiplicity." Instead of being a "family super-hero," they claim,
today's men are "hybrid" ? meaning they want to wear "pink-flowered"
shirts and try out "partner-swapping clubs."
Ah, now I see why this article caught your attention, Bitchtits. Was
it in your edition of "Wife Swapping Monthly"? Of course, you're more
a buyer than a seller in that market now since The Beard Incident,
right?
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| User: "WH" |
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| Title: Re: Today's new girly men |
11 Jun 2005 01:22:17 PM |
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wrote:
Today's new girly men
You fit right in then pantyboy, what with your "bitchtits" an all!
WH
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| User: "Su Zanadu" |
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| Title: Re: Today's new girly men |
11 Jun 2005 09:05:47 PM |
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Can I grab myself a handful of yer girliness, Tony?
:)
SuZanne
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Today's new girly men |
12 Jun 2005 01:09:06 PM |
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Chris the Muslim Convert wrote:
itwill@happen.com wrote:
Today's new girly men
You fit right in
WH
Uh, the article was about guys like you and Tommy Boy.
Tony
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| User: "WH" |
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| Title: Re: Today's new girly men |
12 Jun 2005 02:08:48 PM |
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wrote:
Chris the Muslim Convert wrote:
wrote:
Today's new girly men
You fit right in
WH
Uh, the article was about guys like you and Tommy Boy.
Tony
But YOU posted it!
WH
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