Colin McEnroe Show: The Art Of Being Manly
In today's culture, what does it mean to be a man?
Published: Oct 12, 2010
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Colin McEnroe Show: The Art Of Being Manly
Maybe one of the costs of the digital revolution is the tactile relationship wit the world that helps us know who we are.
In my conversation with Brett McKay, founder of a website called the Art of Manliness, I found myself talking about things you have and touch. A pocketknife, a handkerchief, a screw driver, a necktie, a notebook with a leather cover.
Richard Wilbur's great poem about, among other things, laundry, is titled "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World." Surely the reverse is true too. The things of this world summon us into a kind of presence. The other day, my friend the artist Anne Cubberly and I were strapping something down with bungee cords. "What did we do before bungee technology?" I asked. "Ropes," Anne said. "People actually knew how to tie knots. It's a step backwards in some ways. Like shoes that use Velcro."
What does it mean to be a man today? How has masculinity changed? Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
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E-mail from Karl
Speaking of the definition of manliness which includes ease with one's self and one's surroundings, please note that the Don Draper of 1960 (first year of the show) is not aging gracefully. Things are passing him by, socially and culturally, which doesn't matter to ordinary folks with ordinary vocations, but is especially important in the world of taste-making, punditry, and advertising.
To contrast, I don't know if Colin's teaching a multimedia class after decades of being a print journo, shows him to be a retrograde sexist and alcoholic, becoming jarringly out of place with peers, superiors, students, and subjects in today's media world, but I'm betting not.
Cordially,
Karl in Bloomfield
PS Incredibly good show about the police / video situation in New Haven.
That's a subject that deserves an hour. Have any Tea Party members weighed in with their grave concerns about an oppresive government taking over our lives? (I don't even know if I'm kidding anymore.)
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