Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Monday, June 12, 2017

Pajama Boy Redux: The Male in Modern Society

The route from Beowulf to Pajama Boy has been a very long downhill slide. Popular culture has always shaped our standards and expectations, then as well as now. “Pajama Boy” is the current archetype of a new style of male -- the government-approved, popular-culture-validated male, perhaps best defined recently by the New York Times list of 27 ways to be a Modern Man.

From wastefulness ("The modern man checks the status of his Irish Spring bar before jumping in for a wash. Too small, it gets swapped out"), to silliness ("Does the modern man have a melon baller? What do you think? How else would the cantaloupe, watermelon and honeydew he serves be so uniformly shaped?"), to the assumption that he lives in the city ("The modern man has no use for a gun. He doesn’t own one, and he never will") to the relaxation of expectations ("The modern man cries. He cries often"), the modern male-identity situation has deteriorated into ambiguity.

More

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's no better look than the fake lumberjack look.

Anonymous said...

Nothing says success and self confidence better than looking like a sofa slug.

Anonymous said...

Ugly and stupid is all I see, and if a man cries and cries often, shoot me, because i would be the woman that laughs in his face. I couldn't be in a room with a crybaby man, so weird.

Anonymous said...

Women say they want a REAL man and when they get one they do everything they can change him. Ladies if you want a wimp just get a wimp real men ain't gonna change.

Anonymous said...

Love the Progressive commercial that totally emasculates the minivan guy, LOL! Yeah, ladies, if you want your man to leave you tomorrow morning, treat him like that!

Oh, is this one of your motorcycle friends? LOL!

lmclain said...

Uh huh.
When a punk loser tries to snatch your girlfriend's purse, you KNOW that every woman on the planet wants a so-called "guy" with a man bun, a beard, and an aversion to violence.
A guy who will cry when the thug knocks his girlfriend's teeth out.
Women are all over that kind of girlie-boy. They LOVE sissies and crybabies as companions.
Maybe, after she gets raped, the thug will rape him, too. And he will cry again.
The rest of us MEN?
Two rounds into his chest. Dinner at seven. Everyone goes home happy when they are with a REAL man.