Paper Mache Manhood

I don't know any other way to say this, so I'll just say it: I love the Twilight saga. Yes, some might view it as a series of estrogen enhanced romances designed for teenage girls, and I have certainly taken my fair share of flak for reading it. But you know what? I still like it. It is great storytelling, the characters are compelling, and it is above all a fun read. I am going to read it all the way to the end, and anyone who has a problem with that can take a long walk off a short pier.

Now, one may well wonder if I am less of a man for feeling this way. Maybe I am, but that still begs the question of what makes a man a man. What is manliness? I used to be under the delusion that it was about being tough, strong, and bigger than the next guy. It was about winning, being cool, being a stud. It was about never showing weakness, sensitivity, or vulnerability.

As I learned a bit more about life, however, I learned one thing: this idea of manliness is a lie. It is, in fact, a damaging delusion dreamed up by a testosterone-addled society and pushed by pandering peddlers of pop culture. But it is, in the end, a bunch of bullshit.

We've all seen examples of this paper mache manhood - flexing, grunting posers in the weight room; gun-toting flag waving NRA sycophants; latte-swilling Blackberry toting white-collared wussies screaming with road rage; self-proclaimed studs strutting at the beach or at bars; smack-talking tools heroing it up in pickup games; and drunken fratboy fools spewing their ear-splitting stupidity at sports bars and sporting events. And, of course, let us not forget our smug, arrogant ex-president George Bush, whose brazen "bring it on" brainlessness put our country up shit creak without a paddle. These so called men are all full of themselves, and all full of shit.

Yeah, I have seen way too much of this bullshit, and even participated in it at times. But it's not me, and it's not what a man really is. Don't get me wrong, there is a place for machismo. Soldiers, cops, and fireman need a healthy dose of it to do what they do, and we'd all be in deep trouble if they didn't have it. They can get away with it because we need them to.

Anyone else, however, should give it up and just be themselves. Cry when you want to cry, read what you want to read and watch what you want to watch. Be who you are, not who they say you should be, not how they say you should be.

That, in the end, is what being a man, what being a human being, really is.