Remember tough guys? Men like Steve McQueen and John Wayne – strong silent types that got the job done. Recently we’ve had SNAGS – Sensitive New Age Guys, Metrosexuals and Ubersexuals – men who are fragile and flawed.
These guys have been feminised by society. Their hands are manicured, they cry and don’t know how to fix a car when it breaks down. Indeed, the only solid things about new age guys like Johnny Deep and Leonardo Decaprio are their hair-care routines.
Perhaps the reason that real men have disappeared – or that society has become gender neutral – is that real men scare the pants off us. Feminism says that women can do anything that men can do but according to Harvey Mansfield, a US conservative theorist, this is patently untrue. According to Mansfield, men are far more likely than women to stick their necks out for an idea or a cause and men have a far greater taste for physical and intellectual combat.
This means that men are far more likely to start wars and torture people but it also means that they are more likely to invent things or knock ideas down that don’t make sense. Whether you agree with this or not, it’s certainly an interesting area for debate.
Perhaps there is a long and bloody battle to be fought in societies where women are behaving more like men and men are acting more like women. Some people would like to see this situation partially reversed with women returning to a level of female modesty and men becoming stronger and more gentlemanly.
Funny that you cite actors when you look for examples of “real men”, and contrast them to more actors. Actors are indicators of the world of image, not substance. You could just as easily make the case of a continued tradition of tough guys if you picked different actors (Bruce Willis, perhaps).
Real men are all over: working hard, taking care of their families, getting the job done. Real women are doing the same thing, and thanks to the stagnation of real wages, real men and real women both have to work. Some people would like to see us go back to a fantasy of a golden age, but they’re usually wearing rose-colored glasses on their hindsight. Whenever you see someone waxing nostalgic about the Good Old Days, take a hard look at those Old Days, particularly how they treated people who weren’t affluent white males, and ask yourself: were they really that Good?