A Harvard Prof named Harvey write a book to define Manly Men.

I wonder if he has already bought his mid life sports car yet.

Harvey MANSFIELD, yet. The mind boggles.

Are we sure this isn't some kind of joke?

I read the Broadsheet blurb and the NYT interview and I gotta say that it's all too funny. Is this guy serious or does he have his tongue in cheek? I'm afraid he's serious, but it still all sounds very humorous.

The NY Times Book Review has a review of this book in the upcoming Sunday issue (3/19). They also thought this guy's perspective was ridiculous. The review mentions anecdotes he uses in the book to support some of his ideas and notes that most of them appear to come from 1950.

I have a copy of Mansfield's book on my desk and while I haven't read it, I can report that his preface begins with a rough definition: "Manliness seeks and welcomes drama and prefers times of war, conflict, and risk. Manliness brings change or restores order at moments when routine is not enough, when the plan fails, when the whole idea of rational control by modern science develops leaks."

Yhea thanks for the research there Traister. Are you serious? Nothing has been reported here. Why read and do work, when you can skim the surface and make snide remarks. Come on. Isn't anybody else the least bit bothered by this. One of the other posters asked if this was satire. And Traister couldn't answer that question. Honestly why post a story when you don't know anything about the subject.

I'm a Harvard graduate. I had two classes with Harvey "C-minus" Mansfield and he is the very definition of an effete, east-coast intellectual. His views on women are only rivaled by his views on race. He ought out to stick to writing about Plato.

women will never have. Penis envy is not an attractive trait. Try growing up.

PS: We prefer not going to your women's only clubs, why do you feel compelled to come to ours?

including Prof. Mansfield confuses "manliness" with masculinity or maleness. Mansfield's manly men exult in times of war (so countless battlefield generals weren't "manly"), but men like Jesus, Buddha and Ghandi did not. Our poets, writers, painters, mathmeticians, scientists, philosophers and spiritual leaders have always been men. Damn few of them conform to Mansfield's "manliness."

She's not even a fair interviewer. She's horrendous. Simply by identifying the interviewee, you can pretty much predict exactly what the questions are going to be, what conclusions she's going to reach, and so on. Here, for example, are her insightful and mature questions put to the editor of a Christian magazine aimed at teenagers:

Deborah Solomon: “But Mary Magdalene, who was Christ's girlfriend, favored low necklines and loads of jewelry.”

Laura Whalen, Thomas Nelson Publishers: “Mary was a friend of Christ. From the Bible, we have no indication that there was any sexual relationship with her.”

Solomon: “You could argue that Christ was drawn to her precisely because of her flamboyant clothing.”

Whalen: “Christ was drawn to everyone. I think he loved Mary regardless of her clothing.”

Deborah Solomon, as a reporter, is a smarmy, half-bright, self-promoting asshole with an agenda with a capital "A"

Tyler Durden on an actual useful human being: " a smarmy, half-bright, self-promoting asshole with an agenda with a capital "A"."

It's like a perfect description of himself. Eerie, that...

And war, rape, genocide, Janjaweed, terrorism: manhood at its finest is covered by Ann Curry's reporting from Darfur.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11199306/

Just shows you what level of idiot gets tenure at Harvard. Part of his description of "manliness": "Manliness seeks and welcomes drama and prefers times of war, conflict, and risk. Manliness brings change or restores order at moments when routine is not enough, when the plan fails, when the whole idea of rational control by modern science develops leaks." If that were a woman being described, she would have been excoriated as a hystrionic personality disorder, a bitch, a gorgon, a virago, and denounced in any number of Greek tragedies. Guess there's a different set of standards for male behaviour, no surprise.

SO... manliness is responsible for war, chaos and anti-science. You can't pin that on me, damn it. I also think it rediculous to call Truman anti-science. Oh, I'm sure there are exceptions and caveats, but when you write a book like this you're asking to apply generalizations.

"Manliness seeks and welcomes drama..."

My own very dear father, may his memory be always for blessing, was an immigrant child who survived the Depression and became a decorated veteran of WWII. He was an extremely masculine guy whom women adored. One the women who adored him was my mother. They had a delightful and loving marriage until my father's death, some fifty years after their honeymoon.

If my unflappable father could be said to have truly "hated" anything, it was drama. He regarded most of the screaming and carrying-on that humans do as self-indulgent. He considered racism and homophobia as kinds of "hysteria." While he thought WWII was a necessary war, he felt that America's subsequent military adventures were folly.

I think of him often nowadays. He would have hated not only the recent Muslim brouhaha over those cartoons, but also the Religious Right's seemingly inexhaustible supply of screeching and outrage over such issues as gay marriage.

My father was brave and decent because he knew the difference between genuine crisis and manufactured drama.

It's unfortunate to see that an Ivy League professor regards "drama queens" as exemples of "manly men."

brain.

Nothing more than a caricature. I really don't think we should pay any attention, expect to point out to Sean Hannity et al that obviously all academics are not raging hysterical liberals, or whatever they are trying to say in the wake of the Summers resignation. Although if it has sparked your interest, _Manliness_and_Civilization_ by Gail Bederman is a great book, and you'll never think about those two terms the same way again.