It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum
Topics => General Board => Topic started by: Weisshaupt on December 10, 2013, 08:57:28 AM
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Ann Barnhardt is constatly talking about the lack of masculinity in our culture.. and via instapundit today I find this:
"Didn’t I find, like Paul Theroux, “the quest for manliness essentially rightwing, puritanical, cowardly, neurotic, and fueled largely by a fear of women”? Yes, absolutely, and this belief did nothing to change the fact that I have wanted and sometimes tried in life to feel more manly. In fact, I was trying as I rendered judgment on the Wilderness Collective video, because one of the easiest ways to feel manly is to feel superior to other men’s efforts to feel manly." (http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115781/adventure-men-my-trip-wilderness-collective-mt-baker?a&utm_campaign=tnr-daily-newsletter&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=11358895)
If you are worried if you are "manly enough" then you should stop worrying. You aren't. Who the f worries about crap like this?
I am a pretty effeminate guy, raised by a Feminist mother in a "Free to be You and Me" playing household - and yes I am a bit of a pussy about a lot of things other men aren't. I am uncomfortable driving trailers, I don't like the adrenaline rush of jumping an ATV, I am not overly interested in guns, I can't watch sports of any kind ( take me to a game an I end up watching the crowd around me) and I generally have the female tendency to prefer safe, secure and non-dangerous activities. I understand my limitations.
But never once did it ever occur to me to take a hiking trip to "feel" manly, nor did I think I would feel more manly if I was compared my to weaker efforts of other men.
Men. Real Men. Couldn't give a sh*t. They are comfortable in their own skin, accept who they are, understand their limitations and work to change those limitations if they don't like them, and they don't whine or introspect about it like this little wuss. A real man pretty much never doubts that he can accomplish something he wants to accomplish. He just assumes its possible if he applies his effort, thought and will to the problem.
This Theroux guy also says (http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/27/magazine/the-male-myth.html)
"Even the expression ''Be a man!'' strikes me as insulting and abusive. It means: Be stupid, be unfeeling, obedient and soldierly, and stop thinking. Man means ''manly'' - how can one think ''about men'' without considering the terrible ambition of manliness?... "
Yeah. That is what manliness must seem like - to someone who has never experienced it.
The original article of course gets worse, and can be summed thusly
The pace of our hike that morning was largely determined by their documentation, as Larry led Casey, Steve, and Portland John ahead to set up shots of the rest of us coming up the trail. We were not simply men climbing a mountain to learn something about manliness. We were men playing parts in a multimedia project about men climbing a mountain to learn something about manliness.
All very Meta Meta. And not at all, in anyway, Manly. Just a bunch of castrated liberal Unichs wondering what it would be like to have balls and not care about what brand gear they had, what drinks they got to eat at night, and what bragging rights they would have when they returned.
Here is you answer guys: A real man would have climbed that Mountain because he WANTED TO. Because he thought he would enjoy the experience. Because HE LIKES being up there. And he don't give a crap if anyone else cares or approves. Its a foreign world to a liberal - whose entire life is consumed by seeking the approval of the other herd animals.
Now, in feminism’s wake, it’s a pillar of a liberal arts education that gender is a performance—hence academia’s preference for discussing it in terms of “gender roles.” And it’s the recognition of this performance as such, that allows some men to soften its edges without feeling any less manly themselves. It is, however, still a performance—and, like any performance, it can sometimes feel inauthentic.
Then stop acting morons.
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A real man doesn't give a rip what this idiot thinks. We just do the best we can to serve God, take care of our families, friends, and country. The rest matters not to me.
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Those are some excellent observations and refutations Weisshaupt. People (and I use the term lightly) like this Theroux wuss would be laughable if it was contained to them. They can delude themselves all they want and I'll just stand on the sideline and point & snicker. The unfortunate (and exasperating) this is that they are working overtime to inculcate our kids with this foolishness.
Kids have it tough enough as it is without being trained to fail at life.
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A man has got to know his limitations.
I ski for fun and exercise, I don't take a slope higher than my skill level will allow. Not because I don't think I cannot learn it, I rather keep the risk to my health to a minimum. Everyone of my childhood friends broke bones doing stupid sh*t so my intellect drove me in the opposite direction taking my health in a serious way. If you're enlisted in the armed forces well that entirely different, you're expected to train for this or that as part of the force.
I was taught at an early age to respect small arms and shot everything from a 10/22 Reuger to a M-1 Gerand. Never did I want to own one until this nigga sworn into office and I realized it was my responsibility to protect my family. I can't get enough of them now.
To each his own, man up and take responsibility for your actions as a man and protector of your family.
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I'm taking a two track approach to this...everthing that can be done to prevent these fools from being in contact with children in any capacity should be done...the adult betas will be instant fodder in the coming conflagration...I'm thinking cowering and urinating on oneself isn't going to be a very good self defense mechanism.
TFB! ::smallestviolin::
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I'm remembering a writer-chick for the WA Times, I think, being on a plane with a bunch of 'slims acting up, scaring the crap out of everybody. She was observing and talking to the attendants and other passengers; her husband was "journaling, journaling".
::snort:::
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It's a tough decision to nail down, because I think physical characteristics, interests, behaviors, can be a part of what is or isn't "manly", but mostly I think it comes down to exerting control over one's circumstances to the greatest extent possible. Another word for that might be independent. There are lots of people who know next to nothing about practical matters. For me, there is little I detest worse than having to hire someone to perform a task for me. Sometimes there's just no escaping it if you don't have the right knowledge or tools, but I will not cross that bridge unless I must.
So I do most of my own work around the house, car repairs, and if it's something I am not familiar with then I get familiar with it. "Calling a professional" is not even the first 5 thoughts that enter my mind. This has caused me problems with DirecTV before. They virtually insist on using installers. To that I say nonsense. I will mount and align the dish myself. They act like it is impossible for the homeowner to align a 5-LNB dish themselves. Well I have done it numerous times, and get as near perfect a signal strength as possible.
Certain behaviors I observe in public will immediately strike me as unmanly, but it's just something you recognize without being able to articulate.
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It takes a real man to be a true Christian.
Does anything else matter?
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her husband was "journaling, journaling".
WTH is "journaling"?
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Writing in his journal.
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..or in this case..."journaling" is synonymous with "epitaph".
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That's odd. No man I know keeps a "journal". ::thinking::
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I think to many males being manly looks like too much work.
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I think to many males being manly looks like too much work.
And yet, to some of us it comes naturally.
I don't claim to be perfect and I don't claim to be manly. But I DO claim to be male and my wife has accepted that blemish. ::unknowncomic::
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There are many, many days when I have a "Peter from Office Space" moment and just want to give up working in the IT field and instead work in a literal field.
The dramatic shift away from an agrarian existence to a concentrated, urban, industrialized existence made possible many things. But it might also be what has made possible our end as a civilization. Nobody knows how to do things that are intrinsically valuable anymore (i.e. produce food, build shelter, etc). No matter what you do for a living, there's a very good chance it is only valuable in an abstract economy.
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My whole thing about being a man for my family has always been not to let them see me worry about anyhing at any time. I could be jello on the inside but a stone on the outside.
I found early on that if the kids saw me worried they were scared to death.
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I think to many males being manly looks like too much work.
I often use the "males" vs. "men" as a distinction. For example; Pastors, who are male, yet too timid to even mention the phrase "religious liberty" or who purposely confuse that phrase with "politics" so as to avoid both...are "males", not "men." I don't expect them to become knock-down/drag-out revolutionaries...but I do expect some pluck & spirit when times call for such.
Basically: love your God, love your country (as founded, not from utopian ideal) and love your family: wife & children...AND to the best of your ability love your neighbor & do the [Biblically] right thing (which should cover character & integrity). That and pray to the Lord for wisdom.
James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
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James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Yeah, I stopped praying for wisdom a long time ago, because I figured out such prayers were answered by sending you some "fun" challenge, which once you survived it, made you wiser. I pray for wise council now, for I would much rather benefit from the hard earned wisdom of others vs. gaining it for myself the hard way.
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James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Yeah, I stopped praying for wisdom a long time ago, because I figured out such prayers were answered by sending you some "fun" challenge, which once you survived it, made you wiser. I pray for wise council now, for I would much rather benefit from the hard earned wisdom of others vs. gaining it for myself the hard way.
Sounds like you're wiser already, Weisshaupt: OPW...like OPM (other people's money) is the preferred "shortcut".
Sure saves on this- ::bashing::
On Molding Clay
When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out-
God knows what He's about.
Author Unknown
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[/quote]Yeah, I stopped praying for wisdom a long time ago, because I figured out such prayers were answered by sending you some "fun" challenge, which once you survived it, made you wiser. I pray for wise council now, for I would much rather benefit from the hard earned wisdom of others vs. gaining it for myself the hard way.
[/quote]
I'm with you. Learn from others mistakes. I let my older sister make them, then didn't do as she did.
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The past few years I've found myself just praying for strength. It works.
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The past few years I've found myself just praying for strength. It works.
Like the "strength to be patient and not pummel a libiot into a puddle on sight" kinda strength? Yeah...I need a lot of that...
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I don't know what's worse a male who doesn't know how to be a man or a male who wants to make sure everyone knows he's the man. Neither knows what being a man is.
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I don't know what's worse a male who doesn't know how to be a man or a male who wants to make sure everyone knows he's the man. Neither knows what being a man is.
Maybe the former has a chance to learn...just never had the right role model or internal gumption.
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I don't know what's worse a male who doesn't know how to be a man or a male who wants to make sure everyone knows he's the man. Neither knows what being a man is.
Maybe the former has a chance to learn...just never had the right role model or internal gumption.
Yes, there's that. And such a guy is less likely to hurt others than the guy who has to "show" everyone he's a man. I've known both.
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With me what ya see is what ya got. Don't like that? TFB, then don't let the door hit ya in the butt on yer way out. Or ignore me. I don't really care.
I don't play games or try to impress anyone.
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I don't know what's worse a male who doesn't know how to be a man or a male who wants to make sure everyone knows he's the man. Neither knows what being a man is.
Maybe the former has a chance to learn...just never had the right role model or internal gumption.
Yes, there's that. And such a guy is less likely to hurt others than the guy who has to "show" everyone he's a man. I've known both.
Not sure, but perhaps this was the origin of "Walk softly & carry a BIG stick" quotation. Be prepared & friendly - until they give you a reason not to be. Then, neutralize them and, as a good will gesture, call 9-1-1 to make sure they have a ride home. ;)
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I don't know what's worse a male who doesn't know how to be a man or a male who wants to make sure everyone knows he's the man. Neither knows what being a man is.
Maybe the former has a chance to learn...just never had the right role model or internal gumption.
Yes, there's that. And such a guy is less likely to hurt others than the guy who has to "show" everyone he's a man. I've known both.
I like Mal's description to the doc when he was worried of being off'd in his sleep...
"You'll be awake, armed and facing me"...
It's only when I am quiet that people acting foolish have cause to be nervous.
If I am yapping I am only having fun. Well, OK...sometimes I do toy with my food.
The cat has taught me bad habits...