Manhood

11 December 2021

Manhood. What is the measuring stick we use to judge a man? What traits are considered manly? Who do we look to as an example of how to be a man?

Western religions have a man as the literal creator of everything. Advertising plays to our insecurities so hard. Media most often centers a man as the main character. Our fathers and brothers influence our perception of masculinity. Men have more political and financial power than women. Manhood is just a shifting idea though, and I go through times where I love it, and other times where I'm repulsed by it. Maybe that's just how I was raised, let me know of you feel similarly.

Genesis 2:24 "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Adam seems like a no-brainer example of manhood. Leaving his family to start a new family, while the lady waits for suitors to come knocking at her door. The man showed some initiative there. Adam named all the plants and animals, he's some kind of scientific authority. I mean Eve wasn't even created until after all the animals were named, she probably had to sit and listen to Adam who was rattling on and on about all the animals. 

Cain is another early man we can look as an example of manhood. Maybe he's a bad example, but I think it's accurate. I sometimes wanna hurt my brother when Dad likes his dead animal more than my pot of lentils. Men are expected to use violence from time to time. And I naturally get angry when I'm embarrassed. 

Abraham, the father of us all. His wives had babies, but we don't have any info if Abraham was in his kids lives. Not until they were adults anyway (once he almost sacrificed his son lol). He spent a lot of time in the desert, talking to God. And like, maybe that's what fatherhood is, get 2 ladies pregnant and then sit in the desert for a long time. I feel like this is fairly still accurate to how Dads behave. 

Then there's Jesus Christ. He taught men to pray, turn the other cheek, treat women with respect. He fasted for 40 days and still resisted temptation. Like, that's a man I wanna emulate. Christ feels pretty effeminate to me though, maybe that's one reason I like Him. 

Odd side effect of Jesus: moral superiority was now tied to how much suffering you go through. 

It kinda feels like a one-upping game, but like even worse. Maybe you've experienced a man proudly displaying his traumas in an effort to gain admiration. And when 2 men start competing for who has the more unfair life, it's just awkward lol. I feel like it's intrinsic to manhood compete like this, maybe I'm jaded because I do this too much lol. 

I feel like I should say something about Mohammed. But I don't know much about him. Mohammed is the most common men's name in the world though, so there's that. 

Oedipus killed his father to gain his mother's affection. And what guy can't relate to that amirite fellas? Haha, jokes aside this is painfully real. A man's relationship with his mother is so interesting and beautiful. Like, Moms are so influential in men's lives. I think Freud agrees with this too. With his penis envy and all. 

And there's Orpheus! My favorite. He just had to not look at the beautiful woman who loved him for a little while, but he went ahead and looked at her and she was torn from him and went right on back to Hades. There's many interpretations of this. Orpheus chooses to glance at her and spend the rest of his life writing poetry, even though he was deeply in love. That's pretty manly, honestly, to choose his own art over actually having a romantically fulfilled life. Maybe it speaks to a man's inability to keep his eyes off beautiful women. 

I often wonder really how influential Classical Roman and Greek mythology is in our lives, but it seems pretty influential. The Bible is hecka influential too. I do think our ideas of masculinity come from these myths.

Then there's American men. I've looked up to these guys and have always Associated them with manhood. Buzz Aldrin, Abraham Lincoln, Mohammed Ali, Lewis and Clark, Doc Holiday. The coal miners, construction workers, railroad workers, mariners, farmers and ranchers and cowboys. Every man who signed up for the military after 9/11. I dunno, I'm just really patriotic and romantic about American men. 

Donald Trump is a hero of manhood, how many men were inspired by him because he's a cutthroat businessman who cheats on his wife with porn stars. And he's completely unashamed about it. All people have a power fantasy, he's the guy actually living it, it's not a fantasy to him.

Celebrities too! It's literally every child's dream to be a movie star. I think celebrities are highly influential, because we love them and accept them without too much criticism. So they easily go straight into our brains. Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando, Clark Gable, Harrison Ford, Henry Cavill, Heath Ledger, Tom Hardy, Chris Pratt, and like, literally dozens of others. Post your thirst for your favorite actors in the comment section below! Comment about other manly men!

Anyway this is a little list of men who I feel shaped the archetype of manhood. I've noticed there's only one man of color, and no queer men. I have weird feelings about that. Also most of the men on my list are just straight up fictional!That's kinda crazy. I wanna hear y'all's examples of men who you view as "real men" 

Love you all