James Lileks has a great Screed on the new idea of the “new male” that’s been floating around. (What Lileks doesn’t have are permalinks to his freakin’ posts, but that’s another story…)
The original article asks:
“We are watching the birth of a hybrid man. … Why not put on a pink-flowered shirt and try out a partner-swapping club?” asked Le Louet.
Why not? Because it’s f*cking stupid. That’s why.
Because people who wear pink flowered shirts look like dumbasses. Because a man who’s too busy engaging in “partner-swapping” to take care of his wife and kids is a worthless piece of human refuse who deserves to have his well-manicured shoes shoved up his pansy ass. Because anyone who uses self-absorbed Eurotrash as a role model deserves to be completely and utterly removed from the gene pool.
The traditional man still exists in China, Le Louet said, and “is not ready to go”. But in Europe and the United States, a new species is emerging, apparently unafraid of anything.
Except not being able to exfoliate, apparently.
“He is looking for a more radical affirmation of who he is, and wants to test out all the barbarity of modern life” including in the sexual domain, said Le Louet, adding that Reebok with its “I am what I am” campaign had perfectly tapped into this current trend.
WTF?
Let me remind Mr. Le Louet of something. If he wants to know a real man who isn’t afraid of anything and who knows something about the barbarity of modern life, he sure as shit won’t find it in haute-couture.
He’ll find it, sitting in a foxhole in Fallujah, rifle in hand, putting his life on the line to save an Iraqi child.
He’ll find it in the father trying to save up enough money to put his kids through college.
Which person, when all is said and done will have made a greater mark on our world and left it a better place? This one:
Or this one?
As a metrosexual, of course I agree with Le Louet. In fact, the Democrats of the party of Hybrids, I’m proud to say. As for this Lileks guy, this is another example of the exclusivity of the Republican party – White, Christian, and not into wife-swapping.
“a worthless piece of human refuse to take care of his wife and kids who deserves to have his well-manicured shoes shoved up his pansy ass. Because anyone who uses self-absorbed Eurotrash as a role model deserves to be completely and utterly removed from the gene pool.”
This from the guy who just three days ago was mortified by comparatively pale rhetoric from Howard Dean. Oh that’s right…..only Republicans are allowed to be cultural bigots. I keep forgetting.
So why aren’t you on the front lines in Iraq with all the real men, Jay? Anyway, what right do you have to go around picking on metrosexuals when you’re clearly a huge sci-fi nerd? You’re so angry about men who like shoes. What are you afraid of?
Just because you dress like Eurotrash (you’ve gotta admit, they’ve got funky style, and American men’s clothing is just sooo boring- I’ve gotta go to oriental importers and gay men’s boutiques to find anything I like these days, now that goth and rave are out…), doesn’t mean that you need to be an amoral socialist twit, non?
Anyway, I think that these one-sided takes (from both sides) are ignoring the whole point of the idea of the “new male”- to integrate masculine strengths with feminine strengths. Feminists have done their job- Masculinists aren’t holding up their end of the deal. No, I’m not talking about Maxim and “The Man Show” here- those are just proof of Aldous Huxley’s great aphorism:
“Man without woman is a pig- woman without man is a lunatic.”
Sam Keen’s “Fire in the Belly” tackles the issue seriously, Chuck Palahniuk’s “Fight Club” takes it on satirically, and Ken Wilber’s “Boomeritis” tries to take it on theoretically and humorously at the same time (with the best skewering of postmodernism in print), so I won’t belabor the point, but there’s more to this issue than Euroidiotic histrionics…
I think he doesnt hate metrosexuals, I think he hates the fact that male sexual liberation is being elevated to high courage in some circles, the same circles that sneer at American Soldiers, totally ignorant of their daily heroics.
Masculinists?