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The manly man's man
Boston Globe ^ | March 12, 2006 | Christopher Shea

Posted on 03/12/2006 11:16:57 AM PST by Lorianne

Harvey Mansfield, conservative political theorist and academic provocateur, argues that women--and society--need to come to terms with 'manliness' ___ WHO IS NOT JUST a man, but a manly man? And who today can even say the words ''manly man" without smirking?

These questions are at the heart of ''Manliness" (Yale), the new book by Harvard government professor Harvey C. Mansfield, who has long shouldered a reputation as the campus's most outspoken conservative.

In answer to the first question, Mansfield nominates, among others, the marshal played by Gary Cooper in ''High Noon." When the town's sniveling semi-men slink away from the task, Cooper boldly goes out to fight the thugs arriving in his town. As for the second question-well it just shows how wanly gender neutral our society has become: Manly men scare us.

Liberals at Harvard may balk at the suggestion that Mansfield is an academic Gary Cooper. But while some of his conservative colleagues complain privately about affirmative action or grade inflation or women's studies, Mansfield has unfailingly stepped forward with his rhetorical Remington blazing away. Most recently, he stood by president Lawrence H. Summers, whom Mansfield says he considered a manly man-at least until Summers's every third sentence became an apology.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bookreview; males; manhood; manliness; men
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To: Alberta's Child

Yeah, a bit busy but pretty good. This is a good article, I enjoyed reading it.


41 posted on 03/13/2006 7:54:26 PM PST by Victoria Delsoul
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To: Victoria Delsoul

Yep. And I enjoyed reading your post #33, too!


42 posted on 03/13/2006 7:55:50 PM PST by Alberta's Child
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To: Alberta's Child

Lol, thanks.


43 posted on 03/13/2006 7:56:41 PM PST by Victoria Delsoul
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To: Victoria Delsoul

Hey, don't mention it!


44 posted on 03/13/2006 7:58:04 PM PST by Alberta's Child
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To: Alberta's Child

I won't. :-D


45 posted on 03/13/2006 8:02:22 PM PST by Victoria Delsoul
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read later


46 posted on 03/13/2006 8:08:48 PM PST by rattrap
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To: TASMANIANRED

47 posted on 03/14/2006 12:59:38 PM PST by RightWingAtheist (Creationism Is Not Conservative!)
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To: RightWingAtheist

I wish being civil with Women got results. It definitely does not. Men have tried to have a discourse of a civil kind with our Women. It has fallen on deaf ears. My question to Libertarian and Conservative Women is what will it take? Seriously Ladies what will it take to get your attention to the War on Men and Boys? Will it take Homicide Bombers and Men burning down the Women's Center at Wellsley College?

Will it take Terrorism? The US Media refuses to even hear what Men have to say. We are losing 15,000 Men a year to suicide. Our life expectancy is 7 years less than yours. We are 94% of On the Jobs deaths. Damn it what will it take?

Turn on any network TV show and ask yourself this. What is the depiction of Fathers on TV? Like Father Knows Best? Family Affair? The Courtship of Eddie's Father? The Cosby Show? No hell no. Men are portrayed as idiots who cannot do anything without Women. And TV Commercials spew forth Male Hatred and Bigotry. TV is for Gays and Misandrist Women.


48 posted on 03/17/2006 7:41:17 AM PST by Khankrumthebulgar
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To: Khankrumthebulgar

"Our life expectancy is 7 years less than yours. We are 94% of On the Jobs deaths. Damn it what will it take?"

Being less clumsy?

Is it "manly" to capitalize every other word in a sentence? :)


49 posted on 03/17/2006 7:47:37 AM PST by linda_22003
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To: linda_22003

Someone please address the content of my arguements? I have very thick skin and could give a damn whether it offends Women or not. Life expectancy, No-fault Divorce, Prison, deaths on the job, quality of life. All are on the decline for Men. We have Women demanding to act like Whores. Slut Feminism and Women demanding the right to get falling down drunk without the consequences of their behavior. Please address the issues.

That I have called Conservative Women on this and get this whiney crap about capitalization? Give me a break. Katie O'Beirne of National Review wrote a book about Women making the World Worse. Christina Hoff Sommers wrote a Book "The War On Boys", and Phylis Schlaffly has been calling Conservatives on their refusal to defend Men and Family Life. Why is that Conservative Women will not listen to Conservative Men if it comes to the privledges of Feminism?

Do you not see the damage to our Republic? That its very survival is at Stake. Even Secular Humanists and Feminists are coming to that realization. Wafta Sultan raised that on her interview with Al-Jazeera. Who will fight the Radical Moslems? Emasculated, drug damaged Males? Think again. Choose Freedom or centuries of Darkness and the death of our Republic. Ladies the bill for Freedom has come due. An emasculated, cowardly Male populace cannot defend you.


50 posted on 03/18/2006 9:59:35 AM PST by Khankrumthebulgar
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To: Khankrumthebulgar
Khan,

Women do not, or will not, think in terms of 'saving the Republic' or abstract principles such as freedom. Conservatism and Liberalism are really just splintered masculinity and feminity in new clothes. What I mean by this is that by outlawing gender, in education and society, gender has corrupted even political philosophy. Liberalism is simply girlish in everything that it does... It does not wish to defeat our enemies, only to *seduce* them. Conservatism is simply boyish in everything that it does... It's foreign policy is more aggressive if anything. Only when we reject the Rousseau'ish view that society is artificial, that the relations between man and woman are only a contract and place Nature (including gender) as the form of society, only then will elements like 'man' or family be seen as the GOOD rather than a 'lifestyle'. Once this is done, the two political spheres will stop being based on elements on gender and more on real political philosophy.

Women will never address your points because it profits them not to do so. I suspect most of the women on these boards choose the 'conservative man' simply because he is more useful than a 'liberal man'. To women, being a man is simply being useful to them as a donkey is useful to the rider. They will never see Man in the way you and I do.

Shakespeare summed it up quite well with: "What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god. The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!"

Women would say: "What a WORKER is a man! How smartly he solves my problems! How golden goose he lays down money! In speed and directness, how fast and quick he works, in lust how like a servant, in love how like a slave. My trophy of the world, the pinnacle of my friends' envy!"

To Man, God is the infinite and wisdom itself. To Woman, God is simply another Man who works for her. "Make this work for me, God! PLEASE!!!!" Even the difference with religion of gendersm, men will say, "How do I serve, God?" where women will say, "How will God serve me?"

Women may find what I'm saying 'insulting' or 'generalizing'. I am just holding the mirror up to Nature. This is the reflection I see. If conservative women found liberal men to be more useful to them, they would easily switch to being liberal. We see this often with different religions. If it takes conversion for woman to snatch a man, she'll do it without a thought (if she cannot manipulate him to go along with what she wants anyway).

Women do not know what a man is. They think they do, but they do not. Everytime in my life someone has said, "Be a man", it has always been for me to do something against my self-interest. However, whenever a woman is "to be a woman", it is ALWAYS in her self-interest. "I can't go to war because I'm a woman!" "I must stay home with the kids because I'm a woman!" "I must let other males do things for me because I'm a woman!"

The solution, Khan, I believe, is to 'Man up' our males. The main targets of feminism, Hellenisation and Judeo-Christianity. Notice how feminists do not object to either. Rather, they object viciously to the masculinity in both. Both have been de-masculinated... of ancient Greece and the Patriarchs of the Bible (including Jesus). Today, almost everyone, including many in the 'men's movement', believe ancient greece is a partyland for gays (the homosexual paradise) and the ancient jews were barbarians (while Jesus was a feminine emo. This is why they objected to the masculine traits of Jesus displayed in Gibson's "Passion" when they only want to focus on the feminine traits such as 'caring' and 'compassion').

Khan, I don't know if you will go back to this old thread or not. But the ultimate cause of emasculating of men is that by distorting and removing masculinity and imagination from Ancient Greece and the Biblical Patriarchs, they have cut down the twin pillars that upheld Western Civilization. Males do not have masculinity because they are not allowed to believe in the soul. Every great man has believed his soul outpowering the obstacles of the world. This is not contained to a single religion, but shared among all.

We no longer have 'sins'. All our sins have turned into medical conditions except for pride, which is now considered a virtue. In order to obliterate masculnity, feminism had to slay the Western soul.

Like Rush Limbaugh, I believe the answer is not really political action but education. If we can educate, put out the proper and correct information out there, channel it to the masses with an optistic framework, it will create such clarity in men's thinking that, as you have witnessed in dontmarry's forum, will spawn political action on its own natural accord.

To be slain in battle is preferable than this lame suffocation of masculine spirit we have observed over the decades. I am only a young lad but I know my generation has never faced a great war or true hardship before. John Adams said he studied war and politics so his children could study art and music. My generation has sacrificed possibility on the altar in our new temples of electronic/orgasmic maya. But what is a man if his chief renown be but to do nothing but stimulate his senses? We are the walking dead and we shall go to our graves like beds. Men do not fight because they have no selves. Let the spirits out! Let the youth see the glories of their ancestors undistorted from feminist witches. Let them... believe. I speak for many when I say: "Show us the path toward transcendence!"

Without that, what else are we? Competent specialists that occasionally breed at best...?
51 posted on 03/21/2006 12:12:56 AM PST by pook
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