The precarious state of manliness

Watching my year old son play in the living room with his assortment of toys brought out squeals of delight from my wife & nod of approvals from me , indeed our Sunday morning ritual of having coffee in the living room while he went about upturning the house is one of those rare events that we will probably cherish over the course of the years & reminisce with maybe a certain nostalgia.
My thoughts take a turn to the abstract & I realize that his eventual chrysalis into a young man will be fraught with a strange sort of an identity crisis. One in which he will constantly question his sense of developing manhood & be bewildered by the conflicting signals from the world that will pervade his mind.

Take a look around you, it is a Woman's world now, most of the images, illustrations & reflections bandied around by the mass media, internet, TV etc are becoming more female centric. There has been a virtual revolution of sorts where womanly accoutrements & consequently feminine qualities are touted to the extreme, from a comical point of view it might be because the fairer sex are more susceptible to seduction of marketing . But a more sinister trend is that it has led to the feminizing of the male persona which is no laughing matter.

The awakening of femininity make no mistake is a welcome trend & a long overdue one no doubt. This apart from being a suave marketing strategem is also a celebration of emancipation of women, a liberation of sorts after generations of marginalization. But the pendulum has swung to the other extreme, womanliness after being celebrated is subtly being touted as a blueprint for the conduct of men, which is uncalled for.

To illustrate a small point consider the current generation actors such as Robert Pattinson of the twilight fame or Shia Le Beuof of the transformers fame , compare them with yesteryear actors or not so contemporary actors like Gregory Peck, Tom Selleck or even Harrison Ford. Who evokes more images of manlihood? I would guess you would'nt need me to spell it out . Or check out the hoardings staring down at you in malls or fashion plazas , I personally have a hard time telling apart the male models.

Somewhere along the lines of us discovering new fangled concepts like metrosexuality we seem to have lost out on old fashioned manliness.

Women often wonder why men obsess so much behind american football, that most manly of sports . At the risk of stating the obvious , it is because the style of play appeals to the inherent hardwiring in most men. It is probably one of the last few bastions of pure expression of manliness whose vicariousness appeals to most men.

This is not an exhortation for men rush out their doors mallets & axes to prove their manliness, indeed there will be a breakdown in civil society if we give in to our deepest instincts. This is a call to recognize to just get in touch with our inner men & take the lead in shouldering responsibility , in becoming better fathers and display profound judgement. We are better off for the various influences women have brought into our lives but at the same time we need to distinguish between asserting our manliness versus deferring totally to our feminine impulses