Despite what you may think of me, I'm always responsive to a call to Man Up! (no. seriously); however, I was taken aback by this cove (for reasons that you can skip to the end to discover) and the article within (which you can discover immediately below).
I would respond to the article, but during my search for the cover image, I discovered the Atlantic Wire already had said all I would need. Upon seeing the subtitle "The Traditional Male is an Endangered Species", I knew that this cover and article would be somewhat in response to Hanna Rosen's pretty brilliant piece "The End of Men" which was published in the Atlantic earlier this year. Despite it's maybe-off-putting and certainly-hyperbolic headline, it talks, at length and without offensiveness from any angle, what it might mean that women of a certain class/education level are definitely more college educated than their male counterparts and certainly soon-to-be making more money, It's just great, and even though I primarily know her from her work with Slate, Rosin's article has convinced me that once the aforementioned disposable income stops being a problem, I should pay for a subscription to the Atlantic.
(Full disclosure time: despite my being a practicing homosexual and Rosen being, I think, the married mother of at least two children (one of both genders at least...not that I'm stalking), I'm over-the-top crazy about her -- at least her article-writing, podcast-hosting persona, so I may be too biased for critical commentary.)
Anyway, I was all ready to defend Rosin's original article and point out the flaws in this one but the Atlantic Wire's post captures blog postings that pretty much say what I'd have to say -- that there are points that are worthy of discussion but some miss the mark -- but much better. So read it.
(I'm afraid that this particular blog post DOES NOT
meet my self-imposed rule that I should create as much as I consume
media-wise. Pointers don't count. But still, read it. Despite my personal failure.)
If masculinity is best represented by the above, I can safely say, though it may change, it's in no danger of going anywhere. I promise. At least not while me and mine are around.
(I realize that even the child may not disqualify him for everyone; in fact, holding the child isn't a dealbreaker at all for me. It's just the sad, confused face. If I'm going to be promoting masculinity, no matter how hot the image, his son is going to be way happier than that. Like this:
Much better.)
