Letters to the Editor
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Dumb men, smart women
I see a few letter writers commenting on how prevalent jokes are that denigrate women.
Yet, as a man, I see how prevalent is the media image of the dumb man - especially the dumb man who is married to a smart, patient wife. Think of just about any family-centered comedy, and you'll find it. From the Blondie comic strip and movies, to the TV show Home Improvement, to the movie RV. These images frequently occur in commercials as well.
The reason, of course, is that in modern times women tend to control the family spending. Advertisers want to flatter them, so that's the sort of programming and commercials we get.
It doesn't bother me that much. They're just commercial images crafted to efficiently separate the suckers from their money. It's what makes the world go 'round.
The only part that does bother me is the repetitiveness of the whole thing. It'd be nice to see a different portrayal of men, women, and their relationships every once in a while. Perhaps this repetitiveness is why sitcoms are on the decline in the U.S.
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Sigh...Here we go again.
Why does Salon peddle this borish, tiresome twaddle? I don't find it funny, I find it obnoxious. He bashes women and homosexual men and then says he's just kidding? What he's really doing is making fun of masculinity? Who's he kidding? And Salon gives him another media outlet to further his obnoxious tripe? Reminds me of Andrew (? can't recall his last name now!) who several years ago had the same kind of schtick.
If he really wants to repair genuine masculinity, which certainly needs repairing in this cheap, shoddy culture, wallowing in a cesspool of stereotypical "masculine" behavior (more like adolescent behavior) isn't helping. If we're to buy his justifications for it, he's being too clever to a fault. This is the kind of garbage that gets promoted as "entertainment" in this media driven culture.
He's 28 years old, what in God's name does he really understand yet about being an adult, let alone a man?
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Who
I never heard of this guy. One nice thing about reading Salon is that I'm at times introduced to people/concepts/things I've never run across. I read the interview and will admit that I'm not interested enough to read Maddox, but thanks anyways.
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Poco=Mr. Tooty-Toot-Toot-My-Own-Horn-Pants-Man
Sorry. Couldnt help it.
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Masculinity equals failure?
Male sexuality is more complicated and delicate than a woman's sexuality. Men have trouble with orgasms, arousal, and satisfying their mate, which I speculate is the primary male drive. Everyone thinks the male problem ends when he gets it, and having it solves all his problems. Howard Stern is immensely popular because his voice and his persona mirror those of Alan Alda, the sensitive male of the 1970's. Everything new is old again, and the 70's show gives way to the 70's economy, and a 70's Presidency, perhaps its time for more male sensitivity, not less. What's really manly is not worrying about what's manly, because if you think about failure, it's a lot more likely to happen. Or why do they sell all those pills?
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Interesting
I'd never heard of the guy before but will have to check him out. I especially liked his points about the "no user servicable parts" society and the loss of self-reliance.
Nice article, informative and avoided the easy kneejerk responses/questions, pulled some interesting responses from the interviewee
Good one RT
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Over Gold
Anybody who finds it necessary to dangle a gold chain around his neck for his publicity photos can hardly then describe himself as "manly". Only girlie men need jewelry.
What a joke.
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only white women ?
Maddox: "Well, that's a really tough question but probably the difference is in the scope of the suffering. Talking about not being able to vote versus picking cotton in the field ..."
Doesn't this assume white women = default? What about black women, who must surely be included in his jokes (as it is nowhere mentioned specifically that they are not included) -- were they not slaves picking cotton in the field?
This is not a logical defense. I am surprised the interviewer didn't follow up with the observation that not all women are white. etc.
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go to his site
Visit his site and check out the rant about kid's artwork. It is a SCREAM - one of the funniest things I've seen in years.
Like AA says, take what you like and leave the rest.
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Maddox seems pretty entertaining,
but I hope we as a culture get past this 'manliness' thing soon. It's a caricature. It's easy enough to understand where it comes from, but I'd like us to realize what manliness really consists of and always has. We could start by remembering that Jesus, the Buddha and Lao Tzu were men and that Mozart, Shakespeare, Darwin and Einstein were too. Then we could remember that in fact manly endeavors have always included poetry, art, spirituality, science and engineering, architecture, exploration, music and countless other valuable and wonderful things, none of which require or even benefit from a Rambo personality.
Men have always been vastly complex and creative beings. I hope we get around to acknowledging that.
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2 points
1) The guy is a web programmer. Yeah, real manly. He sits on his ass all day and types. And he wrote a book. Sits on his ass all day and types. You'd think if he wanted to be "manly" in the way he describes he'd go get a job as a mechanic or in the construction or demolition industry. He'd much rather cash in on feeding paranioa and in that way he's just like the rest of the Right, whatever he says about his politics. I'm a programmer and I've never been accused of being less than "manly", but the behavior he promotes as "manly" is actually just "childish".
2) He thinks Ross Perot was "the man"? I've been to one of Perot's speeches and the man is out of his mind. He knew people called him crazy, but went so far in acknowledging it that he had a "Crazy bus" next to him at the podium. A small school bus wiht a giant sign reading "crazy" on top. To me that was just proof he was indeed crazy.