You see, it’s emasculation; the blight of the modern era. It lurks round every corner preying on the Western male like a disease… And not even a trendy disease with a big charity and celebrity endorsement by Jamie Oliver either… Oh no, more like a secret, shameful disease that you’re not even meant to have, a bit like ME or something. “What, you’ve got ME? You’re tired - It’s all in your head son, stop being a big gayer and have a pint like a real man”.
Us males have no distinct role anymore. Now before we begin, of course equality is a good thing and I wouldn’t have that part of society any other way, but it’s undeniable that our roles have become confused in the last 50 years. Men are no longer the sole evolutionary providers. Even if we choose to adopt this role, we’re emasculated, sitting behind a desk emailing rather than operating big machinery or lifting heavy objects for no other reason than we can Godammit. We create nothing and we serve everyone.
To most women (and some men of course), this is a load of nonsense. But I don’t expect them to understand. They don’t feel that urge to do what you could brand “manly” things. Building, running, chasing, fighting, protecting, it’s all hard coded into our genes. It’s no small coincidence that men love gangster films, shooting games, car kits, football violence and general competing with eachother on every level. And no, it’s not because we’re Neanderthals or backwards or simplistic, it’s because that’s what we’ve done for tens of thousands of years. Suddenly, within four generations that’s all changed with the latest generation feeling the accelerated change more than most.
Nonetheless, who were our role models when we were growing up? Your father? Perhaps. More than likely though, it’s from television and friggin’ Hollwood. Rocky, Rambo, Arnie, James Bond, Indiana Jones, Smokey and the Bandit, Clint Eastwood. Strong, quiet, hard fighting, hard drinking, honourable men who had a place. Their world made sense. Not in sexist slapping-and-shaking-
hysterical-women kinda way, but in the way that they were born knowing where they stood. They knew what they liked and liked what they knew. They had a purpose. Even today, these cartoon like heroes are shown as examples of maleness, even though their reality in this changing world is becoming less relevant by the day. It’s no wonder why we’re perplexed.
Today, we have nothing to define our masculinity. We have no war to fight, we have no great economic crisis, and we have no struggle. Utopian isn’t it? Well yes, but we also have no role. Aggressive businessmen stick out their chests and negotiate over a glass table, a plate of Borbons and a PowerPoint presentation in a meeting room. Hoards of males embrace their fading masculinity buy buying Japanese plastic sports cars to rev at the lights on the way to Waitrose to pick up the ingredients for a Thai green curry. Scores of men shout at their favourite football team at a weekends to hold onto the feeling of being in a clan. Keen DIYers spend hours building models and gadgets in their sheds to create anything with their hands. Is this what we’ve become? It makes me sick. Whilst the woman’s role has (quite rightly) grown from home maker and mother to well, limitless possibilities, the man’s role has impotently shrunk, leaving armies of dissatisfied and disillusioned men trying to work out how they should act and what they should be. Maybe Fight Club was actually onto something.
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