Manliness

Watching the tube last night, after thinking about life and other man things in the garage, I happened to see an interview with Charlie LeDuff. It seems Monsiuer LeDuff has just written a thesis on the decline of manliness in American culture, "US Guys" is the title.

This is a subject that I have bandied about with my peers on more than one occasion. I suppose, in the back of my head, I have considered a similar literary review - but writing about manliness seemed much too sissyfied as compared to talking about it over a beer, in some smokey bar, while playing pool.

Charlie touched on the fact that a lot of guys, today, are products of divorce. Guys without male role models. Absent fathers. Blah blah blah...
I suppose there is some merit to that talk.
I am not sure I can buy into that line of thought completely, though. I have been thinking about it some, you see.

Sure, there are a generation of dudes raised by their moms. I know more of them than their counterpoints. I am one of them.

At the same time, I can't help but think that my mother's generation were born from Rosie - you know, the women who built Victory ships and drove rivets into B17's. Those were some pretty manly women, if you think about it.
Christ, my grandmother still tells stories about being kicked by cows. I don't know many men who can say that.


I think it might have something more to do with the cultural rise of consumerism. My generation is much more likely to talk about doing things, or go out and buy the things that allow them to do. Not many folks are actually doing things, making things.
Now, I'm not talking about doing things like playing video games or extreme sports or whatever form of escapism you care to insert here. I mean doing things.

I am not quite sure I am accurately expressing my thoughts here.


There are some hints of a generation of men who did things in old magazines. There are plans and diagrams for the construction of all manner of contraptions in old magazines.

This issue of Popular Science, for example, has plans on making your own scuba gear out of the parts bins of the local hardware store.

Who does that? Make your own rebreathing system? Crazy talk.

I have seen the plans for a disc sander, to make yourself. They involved an electric motor, an old belt, some plywood, nuts, bolts and a coffee can. The plans actually included an old coffee can. You can buy a disc sander at Home Depot for a couple of bills, these days.

Guys did things - and they made the things that got them to their dreams.


Men didn't just buy a boat. They didn't buy their dream vacation, scuba diving off of some reef somewhere. It wasn't an option for most men.
Perhaps it was the making and the doing that made them manly.

Men made their own boats, in the backyard. Some guy figured out how to make scuba gear, probably in his basement. A couple of guys would get together some bits from a junkyard, bolt 'em together in the garage and go set a land speed record.


Men made their dreams...