Boys don’t cry. Don’t be a wimp. Stop being selfish. Be a man about it. You’re not good enough. Sound familiar? “We spend our life until we’re twenty deciding what parts of ourself to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again.” – Robert Bly… Read more:
Tag Archives: manhood
Manly Men Drive Pickups and Motorcycles, Eat Tubes of Cheese instead of Meals
Evidently, to be a man, you must drive a pickup truck (or motorcycle), eat at BBQ joints, go fishing, do your own home improvement, watch a lot of pro sports and auto racing, subscribe to sports and men’s magazines, and eat a lot of “salty snacks”. At least according to Sperling’s Best Places, Weber Shandwick,… Read more:
Manly Skill: Accepting Help from Others
In a previous post, I wrote about developing manly skills that are alternatives to the psuedo-manliness ideals of binge drinking, violence, philandering, and cluelessness so prevalent in our culture, saying that being in service to others is an important piece of being a true man. The article was well received, but I just got a… Read more:
Addendum to Retrosexual Code: Reality Check
I recently stumbled across a web page from “Radical Conservative” (an anonymous blogger who apparently lives to bash people who don’t believe as he (she?) does) called Retrosexual Code. The Code is full of so many tired stereotypes that I can’t help but feel sorry for the person who wrote it. I’m going to help… Read more:
Manly Skill: Service to Others
One of the symptoms of the sorry state of modern manhood is the crafting of pseudo-manliness articles, which tend to revolve around the stereotype of the foolish and shallow man who acts macho and virile, while completely disregarding some of the higher virtues of manliness. In order to balance out those articles, I’d like to… Read more:
Gettin’ My Mojo Back
I’ve been struggling lately. First I had a physical setback, a broken ankle, and I thought that dealing with the physical side of my healing would be the major thing to overcome. Then came the realization that the mental part of my game was actually a more difficult piece to overcome, and I completely underestimated… Read more:
Giants of Men
[This is a revised version of a post originally published on Jan. 11, 2009, one that I felt was worth revisiting.] This weekend, I buried my grandfather. He was a giant among men, and will be sorely missed. He lost his wife of 65 years to cancer over two years ago, and he still lived… Read more:
Mainstream Media to Men: You’re Dead Inside
One of my favorite t-shirt designs has a picture of a TV with a hypnotized-looking person staring at it, and the caption, “Why do you think they call it programming?” So it probably goes without saying that I don’t watch (or even own a) TV. I just can’t bring myself to expose my family to… Read more:
Two-fer Tuesday: The Dude Crisis and Easy Green Curry
I like to stay up on what men are talking about as it relates to masculinity, manhood, and personal development, and one of my new favorite subscriptions in the ‘man stuff’ folder in my RSS reader is The Masculine Heart.… Read more:
Advice to Myself as a Young Man
This year I turned 40, and along with the realization that I’m now middle-aged (ack!) came some meditations on the life lessons I’ve learned so far (or not learned, as the case may be). As part of that process of introspection, I found myself wondering what I wish I had heard (and taken to heart)… Read more:
When Does a Boy Become a Man? Our Missing Rites of Manhood
At what point in a boy’s life does he become a man? How does his community, his father and uncles and grandpas, acknowledge that transition and begin the initiation and mentoring process of bringing him into the brotherhood of men? With our daughters, we can acknowledge their ascent to young womanhood when they start their… Read more: