Big Think

Anonymous Anonymous on February 21, 2008, 11:38 AM

it's true, that women in general are indirect; that they are more known for endurance than courage. i guess what makes me uncomfortable about him is that he doesn't distinguish, or doesn't bother to distinguish, between learned traits and biological ones. maybe men are more courageous only because they are told they should be by people like him!

Anonymous Anonymous on February 21, 2008, 4:38 PM

it’s true, that women in general are indirect; that they are more known for endurance than courage. i guess what makes me uncomfortable about him is that he doesn’t distinguish, or doesn’t bother to distinguish, between learned traits and biological ones. maybe men are more courageous only because they are told they should be by people like him!

Jacoline Loewen on March 2, 2008, 7:17 AM

I asked the manly men in my life what they thinked defined manliness. Maybe because the question was posed by me (a womanly woman) I was told it was being able to cry, stepping up as father and husband, doing challenging outdoor activities, speaking up about tough issues but listening when others spoke and more. What it does come down to is exactly as Harvey Mansfield says – taking risk.
Anon83 asks if this could be learned vs biological – absolutely, no doubt that different societies shape the general nature of women. Most probably, an American woman in Saudi Arabia would be seen as very pushy and not rewarded for that characterisitic. But men do not have babies or estrogen and we now know how much these hormones affect our behaviour and we need to pay more attention to that science.
There was the common comment made by teen males in my small weekend study who believe that being a white manly man is the most criticized identity in North America and that they could not speak with moral authority due to the assumed status and power.

Jacoline Loewen on March 2, 2008, 12:17 PM

I asked the manly men in my life what they thinked defined manliness. Maybe because the question was posed by me (a womanly woman) I was told it was being able to cry, stepping up as father and husband, doing challenging outdoor activities, speaking up about tough issues but listening when others spoke and more. What it does come down to is exactly as Harvey Mansfield says – taking risk.
Anon83 asks if this could be learned vs biological – absolutely, no doubt that different societies shape the general nature of women. Most probably, an American woman in Saudi Arabia would be seen as very pushy and not rewarded for that characterisitic. But men do not have babies or estrogen and we now know how much these hormones affect our behaviour and we need to pay more attention to that science.
There was the common comment made by teen males in my small weekend study who believe that being a white manly man is the most criticized identity in North America and that they could not speak with moral authority due to the assumed status and power.

tim hall on April 23, 2009, 4:44 PM

It is the warrior concept that drives men to be manly. Early man had to define and protect his clans hunting grounds. Some clans were more aggressive depending on the availibility of the food source. I wonder if genes and hormones are carried through time according to extended ways of life in the past. I hope we don’t lose our knucles on our middle fingers and become born with extented middle fingers. Electronic communication is great but has a huge physical non-social element to the likings of suburban sprawl. We could easily when the war on drugs and violence in our communities. If we had them.

Could all this electronic social gathering lead to real physical gathering? Only a mother would know. From a manly man when he needs to be manly.