"Can a man live all his days to keep his fingernails clean and trim? Is that what a boy dreams of? Society at large can't make up its mind about men. Having spent the last thirty years redefining masculinity into something more sensitive, safe, manageable and, well, feminine, it now berates men for not being men."
-Excerpt From "Wild At Heart"
Welcome to ManUp - The Blog
Welcome to ManUp — a blog dedicated to uncovering all the facets of the lost art of being a man.
The historian and sociologist Lewis Mumford said: "Every generation revolts against its fathers and makes friends with its grandfathers.”
We think of them as people who loved to tinker, be out in the wild, could fix almost anything, gentlemen, straight-shooters, thoroughly upright guys. Manly man.
Even though, my dad ( @grandpere ) is old enough to be my grand-father, I can say that he has all those attributes that I look up to. A lot of my peers idealize old timers too, and want to be more like them. But the gap between their generation and ours seemed huge...and it is.
The Malaise
Many men today feel adrift and have lost the confidence, focus, skills, and virtues that men of the past embodied. We are in an increasingly androgynous society and the men of today are confused about their role and what it means to be an honorable, well-rounded man.
How do we, in a world of conflicting informations, reconnect with the essence of what it means to be a man?
The Causes
In future articles, I'll be looking into the causes that range from the cultural to the technological. But one factor that is easy to identify is simply the lack of direction that is offered to men in the popular culture. Men’s magazines today are largely about sex, sports cars, and getting six-pack abs.
Another is captured by Tyler Durden in Fight Club when he said: "we are a generation of man raised by women".
Men, if they want, can live like boys their whole life. I'm guilty of falling into that trap myself and I didn't start becoming a men until my mid-twenties. Since then, I've been studying what it is to be a man...what is this yearning inside of us that compels us to the romance of "the good old days of manhood".
What You Can Expect
ManUp is a blog that aim at men and their unique challenges and interests. We will explore together all things manly — from philosophy to practical skills, we will seek to discover more about virtues, old-timer's swagger and finally...how to wed the time tested principles of manhood with the world of today.
Just like my one of my favorite blog says:
The end goal is to create a synergy of tradition and modernity that offers men a way forward and signposts on how to live an excellent, flourishing life.
Conclusion
This is a brand new direction that I am taking by refocusing my energy to this topic. I believe it is a very important topic to uncover. I hope that my followers will appreciate the research and the articles coming out soon.
There is great depth that makes a real man. Much that has been lost in generations of institutionalized life.
A major thing for me in "being a man" is knowing how to survive in the wild with nothing but maybe a knife.
I have spent countless hours outdoors and what would acumativly be years hard core camping or living in the wilderness. I have even gone months in the wild with nothing but a knife and no human interaction or technology.
These experiences are life changing and helped me explore and fine tune aspects of my self I didn't know and most people now days have NO idea about.
Thanks for sharing, best regards~*~
That is absolutely the type of thing that whether we've done it ourselves or not can recognize how having this kind of experience would reconnect us to our "essence". Would you like to contribute with me to provide content related to that topic?
Great post!
The role of a man has changed over the years. Go back to the caveman era. A mans role was to go out and hunt for food, provide shelter, build a fire, and procreate.
Wait a minute..... mans role really hasn't changed all that much!!!
hahaha, shhh...you can't say that ;-)
;-)
I have to agree Michael, its just that its got alot more complicated....
For sure!
Good to see that. I also do blogging about psychology, self-improvement and life. You are going in the right direction !!! . Keep sharing with us @cryptoctopus
Excellent subject matter.
Looking forward to seeing what is next.
I appreciate the research man! I wait to see more!
brave-best of luck in your new direction-seems like an untouched topic
I wont say its completely untouched but with all this Womans Power going on I think men need something to also relate with.
nice. manup vs the art of manliness. FIGHT
With pleasure I will follow the new posts
This is a very interesting topic that I will definitely read along with. The anarchist part of me has rejected any outside information about what it means to be X (insert gender, nationality, ethnicity, etc) simply because my observation since childhood is that we humans love to war and profit. In this blog, you will inevitably have to face and address this issue. Namely that traditional "man values" included a healthy dose of nationalism or violence.
That fact alone guarantees that I'll read your series because I'm super curious about your perspective on this. Also, I'm hoping you do a piece on fixing or building/rebuilding things and why we men seem to often have this as a sort of innate drive
I'm looking forward to it. Its true that there seems to be an innate drive in man to build and improve stuff. It's not because of the "patriarchy" that men are the one who in large majority built the blockchain technology...or the internet for that matter. It's just the type of thing that interest men.
I personally do not see how anarchism has anything to do with biology and psychology. Isn't anarchism related to a belief that the cohersive use of violence by anyone is fundamentally wrong?
There is nurture and nature involved in this but the nurture side shouldn't be thrown off just because it's based on societal norms that were build over thousands of years. There is some truth about humankind embedded in some of them.
I'm looking forward to this exchange.
Anarchy simply means without leaders or rulers, and I think it's safe to say that the majority of accepted science/psychology/political views are influenced heavily by our leaders and rulers, much more so in the past than now, with the advent of computer/internet.
And of course I wouldn't suggest that nurture be thrown off completely, but eyed warily and constantly lest we fall into the prejudices or bias of our parents and their parents, that stretches all the way back to a thousand years ago when we were stuck in the dark ages. But other aspects of the nurture, which I imagine you'll be covering in this series is absolutely embedded with nuggets of wisdom.
Also, I hope you don't think I implied that man's predilection towards building/repair was as a result of the "patriarchy". I agree with you that it seems to be just the type of thing that interest men... I'm just curious why and I think you'd do a great post analyzing the subject.
I'm already loving this exchange. This is going to be a good if sometimes controversial series, just the way I like it ;)
The problem with saying 'here is how to be a man' is that there are numerous ways to be a man, and "conforming" doesn't really show up on most lists of "manly" attributes.
Have you read Iron John by Robert Bly? That was a good middle-ground, for me, rather than something like Donovan's "The Way of Men" with its bared teeth, gangs and warfare and killing and RAAAAH MEN!! WE'RE MENNNNN!!!!! attitude. I couldn't finish it.
I'll follow along with you on this new blog, though.
I'll try to stay as close to the core as possible. I believe we are fundamentally wired differently than women and that it's possible to make generalizations that are relevant for the large majority of men. Of course, there will always be unicorns but if we focus on the exceptions to the rule we can't talk about anything.
I have to look into John by Robert Bly, thanks for the suggestion :-)
Robert Bly focuses a lot on 'grief', mythology and folklore, archetypes including 'The Wild Man' of the forest. It appeals a lot to the creative in me. It's less about hunting and fighting other men for territory, which is what Donovan seems to be about.
Great topic.
I can write a ton about this myself.
In short, what I believe when it comes to being a man:
It's okay to have feelings. You can sensitive to yourself and others. It's not all about being macho and shit.
Yet, sometimes, despite things not going your way, just man up, deal with it, brush it aside and not allow it to affect your very being. Inspire others this way too.
I agree that while its ok to have feelings or get sensitive about something you also have to man up, in this generation of men I am seeing so many weak cry babies, whats going on here...
Agreed.
DUDE, this is awesome!!! I'll be following ManUp for sure, and if you ever need any contributions hit me up, some of my hobbies are knives and knife/axe sharpening and maintenance, practicing friction fire techniques and practicing wilderness survival (though I'm not very good). Great post and I can't wait to see more!
Hey dexter k sounds like you have lots of good content to share on steemit with us guys
Love the new direction. Looking forward to it!
I agree Joe will be most interesting.
Great new direction for your blog! I look forward to the knowledge and wisdom you will share. Despite being a woman myself, I wholeheartedly encourage men to be true men, to set aside society's ideas of making the man more tolerable to women by blurring the lines of gender roles. We are equal; doesn't mean we need to react or think the same.
I am really looking forward to this as I also feel men are very much lost and your raising some good questions here, so keep it up.