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Manly Preferences
Which is the more manly preference: 1) the practical, 2) whatever one feels like, and to heck with anybody’s opinion of it, or 3) the opposite of whatever women like?
For example, soaps. A female friend once observed that I was the only guy she knew who buys scented hand soap. Undoubtedly, many guys would say it is unmanly to care about scents. But obviously they do care. Otherwise, they would sometimes get the scented and sometimes the unscented because they don’t pay attention to the labels. The way I figure it, if a soap that smells like coconut or lemon costs no more than soap than smells like lye, then it is practical to buy the soap that smells better. I can understand as a man not wanting to smell like flowers. But fretting about scents while pretending to not care doesn’t strike me as very manly.
Is it manly to dress in whatever is comfortable and suits one’s own personality? Or is it manly to dress according to what society expects of him? Suits, for example, were invented by Northerners who need multiple layers to stay warm. Is it manly to cook in the Southern summer sun? If cargo pants with many pockets are useful but not stylish, which is more practical and/or manly: utility or conformity?
Is it more manly to love a dangerous activity because of its dangers or despite its dangers? Does a man enjoy being daring? Or is he merely willing to be daring? In such scenarios, what’s the difference between a man’s man and an idiot?
Beards? Mustaches? Clean-shaven? Is this decision purely subjective?
Feel free to propose your own crossroads.
Published in Culture, General
She can put her boots under my bed, anytime!
Perhaps you are thinking of this “lad”?
I’ll go with not manly for $800 Alex.
Cr@p, just noticed that I bought these exact frames not 4 days ago! Doh!
Question for the Rico-guys:
How many of you are attracted to conservatism because it gives you an outlet for your manliness?
(I get a sense that it’s a pretty big deal for at least a few of you.)
You mean he wasn’t?
You know, I actually hadn’t considered that angle before, but now that you mention it, that probably is a big part of my attraction to conservatism. With conservatism, there is no need to subscribe to feminism/grrrl power, or other such culturally emasculating, socially destructive nonsense.
Not really conservatives never miss an opportunity in making it sound terrible.
I am a conservative because I don’t view other people as food, and am not fond of being treated like food. I am skeptical of social change. Also, slaughtering babies at holocaust rates is probably not the mark of a free fair and open society.
On the other hand, conservatives tend to believe in:
Indeed.
On the other hand, who wants a cowardly, disloyal, and irresolute wife?
I started this thread after watching an episode of Duck Dynasty (great show). Of course, manliness is not about soaps and clothes. But it is remarkable how much effort many men put into parading their supposed manliness.
All the pride in petty differences seems natural enough to me, but it’s still a show. It’s like a male bird strutting his feathers. His mate might be impressed, but the rest of us are laughing at him.
No, that’s why I’m attracted to metal.
My brother and I used to sleep to that.
That is a keen insight; I don’t know that it attracts me to conservatism directly, but I do recall feeling awkward with the emasculation that came with being a liberal back in my 20’s.
And “It’s hard not to feel deflated when even your best isn’t good enough.”
Bare metal ideology sure. There is a ton of regard for men doing stuff, getting shot at, blown up, killed, mangled, working themselves into an early grave, having to martyr themselves on all the hard choices, building essentially everything that is great and awesome; generally greasing the axle of the world with their ground up bodies. But the ego inside the meat-sack getting ground up to grease the axle of the world, well that needs to be yelled at if they start to question this state of affairs; that makes you immoral, a monster. Conservatives advertise the sucky bits, and put no good bits on the table about the nuts and bolts of being a man.
Positive valence, need more positive valence.
The way that conservatives sell it, its kind of like being a lunar moth without getting any.
At least the left acknowledges the bit of me that is me, they just hate it.
Perhaps I shouldn’t say …er…write this out loud, but this sentence made me giggle.
Hey! It’s called swagger and it’s very attractive.
And that there is why I do swagger. ;-)
True that, between modern birth-control and obstetrics, women in developed nations don’t sacrifice their bodies for the sake of the species the way they used to.
You mean the state of affairs of breadwinning? Of men being the earners and protectors?
In some ways, I see what you mean.
In other ways, though… Conservatives are much more open to accepting sexual complementarity, more likely to tell a woman she needs to keep her man happy, respect him, and “let him win” once in a while – even in marriage :-)
I’m not sure I know any liberals, for example, who would question a woman’s right to “let herself go” after marriage, whether physically or personality-wise. But conservatives, in my experience, are vastly more likely to admonish a young bride that it’s just as important – no, even more important – to keep your guy happy once you’ve married him than it was to keep him happy while you were dating.
Now, having older conservatives scolding younger women about respecting the manliness of their men isn’t the same as celebrating manliness directly, but maybe it’s not nothing.
Credit your giggles to Guru, not me: I was using his list. (Making people laugh is, after all, manly.)
Then complain when all the young co-eds hit on you :-)
Or as I put it, Boo-hoo. :)
I wouldn’t be to upset about a skittery wishy washy woman. But riding every guy in town would be something of a problem.
And “Every generation, Western civilization is invaded by barbarians – we call them ‘children.’” There’s something to be said for the women producing these barbarian hordes also having the courage and tenacity to stand up to them :-)
Yes, though giggling might not be.
Right now, my face is as red as a beet! ;-)
A manly, manly beet.
Manliness is a state of mind. You make it your own.
That’s an interesting question. I know many manly liberals. Most thoughtful people accept the facts of reality that are naturally conservative (or libertarian!), and at the same time are entirely politically liberal. I attribute this to there being little or no cost to ones political views. Whatever one’s political views are, there is no effect on the government one lives under, so most people pick the political views that make them feel good about themselves.