Dig back through my archives to see a premonition of this piece at AlterNet, “Are Men Having an Identity Crisis?” Me then:
Seth Rogen’s chubby frat boy, Steve Carell’s needy dork bachelor, and Jason Bateman’s ambiguously aspirational young husband; for further fun you can ponder all the gay and metro [versions…].
Them now:
The overgrown frat boy whose hyper-masculine appearance and gorilla strut is a just vain, cosmetic affectation.
The sensitive good guy who cries easily, insists on looking you in the eyes while having sex and then never calls you back.
The coy pick-up artist who borrows his absurd Casanova identity from a book and then rehearses the snappy one-liners he uses to charm the la-a-a-dies.
The relationship blogger who, albeit devilishly handsome, doesn’t know whether women want the frat beast, the sneering hipster, the Xeroxed charmer, the bad boy, or the nice guy, so he sometimes settles for the default setting, shell-shocked douchebag.
Horrified? Take a shot of Manliness. Surely we can work something out here, fellas?
