Can Men Be Men?

In today's society there is a growing debate concerning issues of masculinity and men. This was reinforced this week with Newsweek's cover article titled The Boy Crisis. The article focuses on the problems that boys are experiencing today in terms of socialization, education, as well as behavior issues. The article compares the problems that boys experience versus the problems girls face. This issue touches on an idea that I have been thinking about for a while now and that deals with the social problems that men experience and the popularity of college and professional sports. I believe that the reason that the reason that viewership and attendance to sporting events has increased is due to the fact that sports is a safe vehicle for men to be men.

Wherever you turn today men are being told how to dress, how to act, how we need to be more caring and nurturing, and how we need to be more emotional and sensitive. Media entities have grasped on to this notion and run with. Men's magazines tell us that we need to have six pack abs to attract women. Queer Eye For the Straight Guy tells us that we can't dress, we don't know how to style our hair, we need to wax our eyebrows, we need to organize our spaces just so, and we need to have the right wine to go with the Pate that we need to serve to our dates. Today's modern man needs to be an androgenous metrosexual much like that big toothed entertainment reporter Stephen CojoCaru. We are to be feminine and reject much of our masculine traits. So where is the last refuge for men? You either hunt or you can lose yourself in sports. There is a comfort zone in the world of sports. Sports bars and arenas are safe havens for men in which we don't have to care about all of this stuff. We can go to a game with our buddies drink beer, dip, spit, cuss, eat all the red meat that we want, take our shirts off, yell, and be as roudy as we can without going to jail. It is acceptable and we don't have to worry about what people think because the majority people, in the arenas, are other men. Sporting arenas are also an acceptable place for men to cry. It is not acceptable to cry at funerals, weddings, the birth of a child but it is ok to cry when your team has just won the Super Bowl or the National Championship. Hell it is a source of pride because you are more of a fan when it means that much to you.

Sporting events are where fathers and sons bond, where male freindships are built, and where men are comfortable being free. I know that there will be people who disagree with me but if you sit down and apply this idea to your own life, you will see that there is some truth to what I say; that is unless your are a woman then forget everything you just read.