I was watching ESPN last night and they were talking about Brett Favre retiring and going over his career and where he fits in the line of great players and all that.
And someone said a line that made me think, they said that unlike many of the other current great QB's like Manning(I mean Peyton, one Super Bowl does not make you great yet), and Brady, Favre seemed to enjoy "winking at us" as he played.
In other words he knew he had a cool job and was good at it, so he had fun making sure we knew he knew.
But the other guys really did not have that same swagger and fun feel to them.
And maybe that is our fault I think....
In sports we have have had alot of guys that had that feel to them: Babe Ruth, Namath, Jordon to a degree but he could get into that too serious mode at times too, etc....In the arts we had guys like Hemingway, Picasso who a woman I know who loves art calls her favorite dirty old man, Groucho Marx who I also think was a pretty cool dirty old man in his day, Bogart, Clark Gable, The Rat Pack )and yes even Joey Bishop, LOL) etc....
But who do we have now?
Where is that swagger?
I think we men have stopped doing that because of women not letting us, society not letting us, and we have adapted. And it is bad I think
I recently had to all but teach my son how to be cool, to have swagger, in a situation at school. He needed to learn, from not that great a teacher in that I am not all that sure how good I am at this anymore, or ever was, how to have just that lil bit of attitude that you need as a guy to get through certain things.
I do not mean being a jerk, or an insensitive boor, or a drunk. I mean having just that confidence it takes to wink at the world and be a guy.
And women would benefit if they helped raise there sons this way
Yesterday I listened to a young lady on a radio show complain that she hates that men try to be gentleman, that they try to help fix tires, hold doors open, etc. But I think most of you women would love it if men did all that ! Not the man who changes your tire and then thinks he can have your #, so he did it just to get that, but a guy who does it because he is a man, he is a guy, that is what guys do, and maybe he gets your phone number, maybe he doesn't...maybe he does not want it because he has a girlfriend already.
Bring back "guys" and you will get "men" and "gentlemen"
Might solve issues beyond that too, issues that are alot more important, i'll pick one that comes to mind:
In the last few years there has been a horrible scandal of priest touching kids.
Cases from years ago came to light but even more recent ones poped up.
And the "why" of this was asked in many places, and I know there are many reasons, but this may be one.
If we stop asking men to stop being guys, then men all become the same shade of white in essence....and then the real wierdos stop sticking out when we look for them, hen we try to keep the prevs away from our kids and when you try to weed them out they simply blend in.
Also if we let guys be guys in movies, and they maybe make a movie that has a priest in it, the priest will be a guy, and some kid in the audience will consider the priesthood as he sees it is a guy's thing to do and more guys will become priests and they will not need to look the other way maybe when the first wiff of this comes up...
And am I maybe over reacting?
Maybe
Maybe not
But to go back to the the arts, pop culture, it is often a great indicator of what we want in society if you look at what we go see.
And if you see box office you see that a remake and two really poorly written sequels made alot of money because they remind us of what "guys" were.
I am talking about the Ocean series(11, 12, 13)
We want guys back, problem is it seems we only want them on screen
Bring them bck in life and I think things might improve all around
Posted by whiteknight on 2008-03-05 08:01:05 | Rating: n/a | Views: 68
I like men who are men and I like chivarly, its nice!
I'm a sociology student and was asked to explain to a room full of feminists the other day why I don't agree with alot of feminist thought. My reason is this - I'm all for equality between men and women, but I personally feel that there's nothing wrong with women being feminine and a bit girlie and men being men. That's just what works for me. I have a man who opens doors, if we go out to eat he pays the bill (and I always insist on a 50/50 split, but have not succeeded yet). He likes to look after me and if I try to tell him he doesn't need to do that, he'll always say he knows, he wants to...it makes him happy. So I figure...if he's happy and I am, thats a good thing! He makes me feel safe and protected and secure without me feeling like I've compromised on my independence.
Men now are too afraid of ridicule or being accused of discrimination. If they don't do these things, they are rude, if they do they are patronising women! I say...give me a real man anyday...one who will treat me like an equal without compromising his masculinity. And I will keep on being a girlie...I'm not an airhead, I know my own mind, I'm intelligent and I'm in charge of my own future and career, but I'm also looked after.
Fortunately for me, I found that man. He takes charge in most situations, because thats how he likes it, and how I like it, and it works for us.
I hope that made sense!
All I'm saying is...whats wrong with a woman wanting to feel like a lady, and a man wanting to behave like a gentleman? It's not always detrimental to women, its not to me.
I think you've touched on a very good point.
