"Also, scantily-dressed women are not original to the 20th century!"
A Rabid Attack on Men from LA Times
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/movies/schwarzenegger-your-he-man-da...
This whole article is godawful, and the smug, judgemental manner in which the author spins it up is probably the worst thing about it. It's not so much an attack on Schwarzenegger as it is a derogatory condemnation of traditional male culture in general. In the past I've enjoyed the LA times Hero Complex blog, but I'm going to bypass it completely in the future.
There are a couple good points about societal "progress", but they are lost in the quagmire of vicious man-hating, feminizing rubbish. Let me know if this gets your hackles up like it does mine!
Sam
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by LShieldes on
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Meh, overall I agree with the point of the article, could have used a better author that didn't ramble as much and could do a clearer job of defining her modern man as well as her he-man though.
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Permalink Reply by Sam I. on -
I believe if looked at a bit more objectively, the basis for musclehead action heroes being a thing of the past would hold true. What I thought was an ironic character example usage was the mention of Robert Downey Jr.'s Holmes. While, at least in my opinion, he is actually closer to the incredibly capable Holmes of the books, fans of the older Sherlock movies have accused him of making Holmes into a "cheesy action hero".
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Permalink Reply by Jack Bauer on -
I think she was talking about Robert Downey's Tony Stark -- smartass inventor superhero -- not Sherlock Holmes.
Still ... the point doesn't really make sense when he's accompanied by Thor, almost literally He-Man, and Captain America, an obvious callback to "old guard masculinity". Or mirrored by Batman's gigantic franchise, and Superman coming soon. Or The Expendables. Etc. Die Hard just had another movie. There's a Gerard Butler thing coming out this week that looks like Die Hard in the White House.
Scwarzennegger's heyday is over, but I think that has more to do with him than the death of the traditionally masculine action hero.JB
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Permalink Reply by Josh on -
Not even Die Hard is Die Hard anymore. John McClane is more Jason Bourne than John McClane these days. I've heard Olympus has fallen was better, so I'm just going to pretend that's the real Die Hard 5 and I just hallucinated that other thing where Bruce Willis goes to Russia.
Downey is no Ahnold, but that guy's still built. I'm sure all these hypothetical women who are so hot for geniuses are much less impressed by the sight of an actual skinny, nerdy smart guy.
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Permalink Reply by Jack Bauer on
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I thought she defined both pretty thoroughly ...
Nowadays, real men drive hybrids, extol super-foods and worry more about core muscles and resting heart rates than the size of their pecs. Smart is the new sexy, struggling the new strong, insecurity a form of seduction.
The hoardes of smart, struggling and/or insecure guys coming here asking how to land a date would seem to indicate she's wrong.
JB
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Or the hordes of guys just begging to know what shoes or hair cut or type of music is manly so that they can follow some guidebook on what will make them a man based purely on appearances wihtout any depth?
Yeah, I read that part, and I thought it was horribly written, it didn't convey shit towards what she was wanting to say. Which is why I said the article and the topic needed a much better author.
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Permalink Reply by Jack Bauer on
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Still ... it betrays her point. Smart isn't the new sexy. Insecurity isn't seduction. Women don't like insecurity in men.
She raises Robert Downey's Tony Stark to prove an earlier point about how action heroes have changed -- which they really haven't -- but completely misses how Stark is a counterexample to her point about how 'insecure' is the next big thing in men. Stark is so 'secure' that he's obnoxious.
She's talking out of her ass ... and, I think she knows it. She likes a women-as-warriors, men-as-wallflowers paradigm -- even if she probably wouldn't want to date a wallflower. She likes the idea of angsty, weak, insecure men as "real men" ... and secure, strong women as real women.It strikes me as wishful thinking from somebody who wants her team to have the upper-hand in a gender competition.
JB
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Permalink Reply by Sam I. on
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She could find some kindred spirits on the writing team for NBC's Once Upon a Time . They could have titled it; Ineffectual Male Characters, if they were going for honesty.
Granted, the show is a fairy tale rendering of a soap opera, but I've never seen male characters faint and swoon with such frequency. And it's a downhill slope, one can only be unconscious for so long before brain damage starts to set in.
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Permalink Reply by Shane on -
She should have brought up Tobey Maguire's Spiderman instead of Downey's Stark, if she was going to make that point.
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Permalink Reply by Jack Bauer on
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True. Though Peter Parker has always been a whiny teenager ... and I don't know that his insecurity qualifies as "seduction". Not sure you can prove much of a point about men with a teenager as your example, either.
Would've made the point better than Stark.
JB
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Permalink Reply by Shane on
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Parker has been angsty since Stan Lee introduced him in the 60's. He was written that way on purpose, so kids without a strong male role model could relate to someone struggling to make it on their own without guidance.
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Permalink Reply by Jack Bauer on
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I really think this may be more geographic than it seems. The US isn't as homogenous as she wishes it were. She's writing from California. The coasts like to think of themselves as the cultural centers of the country ... but they're more fringe than they'd like to believe.
JB
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