Masculinity

I have just started my new book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (so far I HIGHLY recommend it - leave that selfish gene crap alone...).

But flicking through and something caught my eye. He has a picture of Eighteenth Century Masculinity on one page and Twenty First century on the opposite.

The first picture is of King Louis XIV of France, it is camp to say the least. The text under it says "Note the long wig, stockings, high heeled shoes, dancer's posture - and the huge sword, In contemporary Europe, all these (except for the sword) would be considered marks of effeminacy. But in his time Lois was a European paragon of manhood and virility."

The second picture is of a very dreary and unremarkable looking Obama and the text under reads "What happened to the wig, stockings, high heels - and sword? Dominant men have never looked so dull and dreary as the do today. During most of history, dominant men have been colorful and flamboyant, such Indian chiefs with thier feathered headdresses and Hindu maharajahs decked out in silks and diamonds.Throughout the animal kingdom males tend to be more colorful and accessorized than females - think of peacock's tails and lions' manes."

This leads me to wonder if our modern concept of masculinity is not contrary to our very nature?

Mid-2000s in the UK when I was still young it was very almost becoming possible for men to wear makeup. My male friend and I would experiment with makeup. This possibility died and Boy George and Marilyn, now fast heading to old age were left looking like sad old queens rather than glamorous beauties.

Of course, this places homosexual males at a disadvantage - the task of the adult female is to mask her naturally old ugly face with endless makeup, fancy hair, jewels, colorful clothes, even surgery and undergarments that hoist everything upwards and inwards, and outwards (for the breasts and butt). If they think it is unnatural for men to be attracted to youth, why do they go to such efforts to replicate it? Most women in their natural state after the age of 40 begin to look not unlike Judith Butler, who in fact, no offense, looks like an ugly man. For us homosexuals, we do not usually have the option for 40+ year old's to replicate boyhood in the way women try to replicate girlhood. The average older male does not look like George Clooney, they look like spud faced bulldogs. If we want pretty, we must turn to twinks...

As I understand it, that sort of masculinity is all about 'display', like a peacock spreading the feathers of his tail, or a gorilla puffing his chest out and hitting it with his fist.

When I was growing up, London was full of punk rockers with huge multi-coloured mohicans, and glam rockers with 'big hair' and very often garish make-up too. The last two and a half to three decades have seen more subtle fashions for blokes in general, but something else will come along at some point, and all us old gits will tut and shake our heads at the stupidity of it it all.

Graveyard76 wrote:As I understand it, that sort of masculinity is all about 'display', like a peacock spreading the feathers of his tail, or a gorilla puffing his chest out and hitting it with his fist.

When I was growing up, London was full of punk rockers with huge multi-coloured mohicans, and glam rockers with 'big hair' and very often garish make-up too. The last two and a half to three decades have seen more subtle fashions for blokes in general, but something else will come along at some point, and all us old gits will tut and shake our heads at the stupidity of it it all.

When I was growing up it was goths, with the black nail varnish and eyeliner - but you raise an interesting point, recall the rave scene (just before my time), very loud colors. Lets not forget the boybands - the pretty boys who were worshiped in the 90s and no doubt contributes to the fact some of us found ourselves here.

The rappers with their bling, is that not peacocking?

I ######6 hated school uniform, I hated uniformity. So I swore I would never wear a suit, I have kept to that. One is left wondering about the cross dressing males, do they wish to emulate women in every instance? or do they just want a bit of color and camp? To throw off the shackles of modern masculinity, to which they are forced to conform?

Seeing the streets of central London on a weekday, what a dreary site. I fear we are locked into this now. Nothing like a glam rock type thing could ever enter the general fasion, such a thing would be limited to a small and short live youth movement - as 'emo' was, they tried to have color and makeup and briefly in the mid 2000s. It's trouble was it locked anyone over 17 out, skin tight black jeans are not becoming of most 20+ year olds.

We should be rethinking masculinity. Its current form is dull, patriarchal, homogeneous and stereotypical.

Beauty is actually one of the tenets of the Socratic/Platonic school of thought. It is defined as something pleasant to look at; as aesthetic. There was even a science of symmetry that defined it for Greeks. In our post-patriarchal society, the outmoded notion that beauty is defined as an essentially feminine characteristic betrays our culture's homophobic bias. We are afraid to call guys "beautiful," since that ambiguous word is often associated with femininity by virtue of its prior definition, and the inertia of a bygone, female-obsessed-yet-ironically-misogynistic era. This is reflected in our current trends and vogue dress codes: e.g., shorter shorts for women/girls; longer for men/boys; speedos are out, while bikinis are in, etc. Fortunately, that seems to be changing rather quickly of late. I'm referring particularly to American culture; I believe you are British (as am I, by roughly 50%).

The boy has been an object of desire throughout history. It is unfortunately true that the further below 21 you get the prettier/more feminine you get. Can you think of a 50 yr old male one might describe as 'beautiful" or 'pretty'? I can't.

You might say that Nigella Lawson is pretty and beautiful; but artificially so. This is a point worth noting about attraction to males, I feel. A modern day 50 yr old man cannot replicate youth and make pretty himself in the way a 50 yr old women can. So when a guy was bought before court because he had pictures of Justin Beiber and had googled how to find a 14 yr old boyfreind, whether it is illegal or not, there is hetronormative and homophobic bias in the condemnation of him there. it also does not do for older men to be boy like in the way older women can be girl like. back to Nigella - see how she often makes girl like gestures in her presentations.

The Big Bang Theory is interesting, the near middle aged males on there often both dress and act in ways we would typically assign to boys/young teens. They are supposed to be Physicists. Physicists would usually be dressed very conservatively and be very serious and stern people. Ahhh - but then we get Brian Cox - most 50 yr old's do not look like that, he has a boyish face and frankly, a boys haircut.

Conjecture: Boyishness, camp and prettyness are absent in the older male in modern times; older females go to great lengths to emulate girlyness and maintain artificial beauty. There is asymmetry here.

Oh and yes - collecting pictures of early Justin Bieber can be considered CP in modern Britain. The twink lover is f***ed....

Collecting anything to do with Justin Bieber should be an offence whoever you are.