So on another website that I frequently rant at, the KTLK FM Talk Spot, the topic of real men (gentlemen?) was brought up, which sparked some interest in me.

The individual who brought it up made a reference to the fact that she was starting to loose faith in real men. This got me wondering, and perhaps this is simply just an expansion on yesterday’s post.

What is a man these days? When I decided to look at what men are considered to be ‘top’ as rated by other men (we won’t get into what most women consider to be top), I was horrified. If you want the full list, check out the askmen.com list here, but I’ll just look at the top 5…
#5: Tom Ford - fashion designer (wtf??)
#4: Lance Armstrong - bicycle racer
#3: Richard Branson - eccentric CEO (Virgin) and environmental activist
#2: Jay Z - rapper and owner of powerhouse hip hop labels
#1: George Clooney - actor/director and humanitarian activist
Anyway, the rest of the list is questionable at best. But it begs to ask why we consider these people to be “real” men? None of these people are leaders, and most are just drops in the bucket.

So with this in mind, how do we rate our men? Success? Wealth? Ability to make headlines? Hell, about the only one who belongs up there is Lance Armstrong, and even that is questionable. After all, if he were really the inspiration he were made out to be, I don’t think we’d be facing such an obesity/couch potato crisis in America right now.

Sadly, I don’t know what the answer is. The former icons of man seem to have faded away, replaced by men who know how to make money or raise stinks about things. I’m honestly surprised that Brad Pitt wasn’t in the top 5, considering his high level of stinkdom.
But what happened to the John Wayne’s and George Patton’s? What happened to the hunky scientists from all those old movies? Or the hunky adventurers? Even the Indiana Jones’s?
It seems that in this day and age, if you:
- carry a gun you’re a right wing nut
- save the girl you’re a sexist pig
- chase the girl you’re a pervert
- shoot the bad guy you’re a criminal
- hold your head up high, with your back straight, you’re egotistical
… Well, you get the picture. It’s a sad state of affairs that us men have gotten ourselves mixed up in. At what point did we decide that wussy was in? When did we toss aside those things that defined men in lieu of all those superficial things?

When is it that charisma and brains went out of style, to be replaced with wealth and a pretty face?

And the sad part is that it is getting worse! I may not have grown up the manliest man, but I still grew up playing with Tonka trucks (the metal ones, not the plastic crap), GI Joe and Matchbox cars. I also played “Army” with the neighborhood boys and learned how to apply camouflage makeup and aim a plastic M16 at a young age. What do young boys do now? I haven’t been to the store lately, but I can assure you that they’re not doing activities or playing with toys that will help them become a better man. Even those things that should build better men are become soft. When I went to boot camp, they were already trying to cut out anything that might be “offensive” because people were complaining. Things like swearing, insulting the recruits, punishing recruits etc… At the time, the phasing out wasn’t working because the current staff was old Navy, and sure weren’t going to go soft.. But I have heard that since then, things have gone downhill as the old salts were being replaced by the new, kinder and gentler staff. They might as well just rename boot camp to club med

Either way, this de-manning of man is taking its toll all over the place. Everything has become soft and wussy. All we do is apologize and try to appease everybody when we should be standing up and paving the way towards the future as we see it should be.

The path before us was paved by men of courage and honor. I fear what the path ahead of us will be paved with…

And just because I need something to feel manly about, here’s an M1 Abrams tank laying waste to something wussy.