Thursday, October 09, 2008

Where Have All The Real American Men Gone?

A break from all our troubles and a question that I am certain is one on many an Americans mind.
Where have all the real American men gone?
I ask this because of this depressing article in The New York Post about the fact that many of the leading men on television shows this season are. . .imports!
Here is a growing problem. And while it is a bit tongue and cheek, it reveals something worrisome about the role of the traditional male in American society.
But, back to television and movies.
Wanna get further into a funk?
Read this quote from television producer Scott Rosenberg

"We're not growing men anymore," says Scott Rosenberg, executive producer of "Life on Mars," a new show that had to cast an Irishman, Jason O'Mara, as gritty NYC detective Sam Tyler.

DOUBLE OUCH!
And, Mr. Rosenberg is spot on.
Look at passes for a real man in today's entertainment wasteland.
Brad Pitt. Leonardo Di Crapio, er Di Caprio.
Look at what is the "youth movement"
Tim Daly. Zachary Levi. Jason Lee. Not exactly household names, eh? FTR, Mr. Daly is on ABC's Private Practice. Mr. Levi on NBC's Chuck. Mr. Lee is on another NBC show, My Name Is Earl.
And not a studly leading man among them.
I think that one of the few real men on television today is the former Doogie Howser, Neil Patrick Harris. And, he's gay!
Mr. Rosenberg laments,

' Where's my Lee Marvin? Where's my Robert Mitchum? Where's my William Holden?

Yes, where are they?
They are all from someplace else.
From Aussies Simon Baker and Anthony LaPaglia to Brits Hugh Laurie, Rufus Sewell, the American male on television is not American. The Lee Marvins, Robert Mitchums, William Holden, the Rat Pack guys, Davis, Lawford, Martin, Sinatra. They are but a memory.
Now, we have to look to Aussie Russell Crowe to define the American male. So sad.
We are, dare I write this, raising a generation of wussified men in the United States. (It is a family blog or I would use stronger language in place of wussified!)
Look at youth sports.
It is great to teach the sportsmanship because it is what makes the athelete. But, when there are many a little-league baseball teams that do not keep score and statistics, it is taking away the instinct to be better. It, in fact, takes away the sportsmanship because it makes all equal. What is the point?
And I am as sensitive as the next guy.
But, I do not need to be trained that way.
And yet, that is what we are doing to another generation of young boys.
Do we wonder why the misogynistic rap music is listened to by mostly young, white males? It is their release. But, it is a bad release.
We need to grow a generation of real men in this nation. What we need is a balanced approach, not extremism.
Soon, being a real man is a job that American men will not do.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think you're missing the key ingredient: Conservativism.

There are plenty of "manly men," it's just that they're all conservatives who are essentially blacklisted.