Man Up.....When I Want You To

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=109&load=5090


This is a discussion about "What it Means to 'Be a Man.'" Specifically when one is told to "Man Up."

First of all, being from the younger generation that started using the term, let me clarify it for the hosts: it means to act like a traditional man. That is, don't take excuses, demand accountability, demand respect, act in a respectful, yet forceful manner, demand others do as well and get things done. Basically what a man did in 1955. This includes calling his wife on bullshit when she's ranting and raving without a point; basically getting to the heart of the matter at all times and fixing things or else applying the appropriate salve to the wound. Planning, preparing, and being superman all count here. Acting like your wife is a little girl and you are her father, here to conquer and protect her. That about sums it up.

What do you get in return for manning up? In the old days it was a very grateful and faithful wife (still gotten by some), and children that called you "Sir" and looked you in the eye and never talked back. But that was 1,000 years ago. These days someone will arrest you for even spanking your children in your own home even if they are doing naked backflips into an empty swimming pool while taunting you about their ability to disobey you at will. Open a door for a young woman and compliment her and she'll probably think you weak and pathetic or else be ashamed that a man is treating her so well (I speak from experience). Demand to be called "Sir" or even be called "Mr. [last name]" instead of by your first name and people think you a stiff, conservative jerk. Teachers at my own son's school called me by my first name before even properly meeting me for the first time. Some children don't even bear their father's last name. Every societal mechanism or identification we had for the importance of a man as a father is gone or has been seriously disintegrated. Its practically illegal to even suggest some of these things were GOOD and ought to be reinstated yet plenty of people are ready to bitch about so many men not being "MAN ENOUGH"!

The point is made in the video that men do more of the child rearing - yes, they do. That's been a "demand" of the women's movement for years. N.O.W. women declared they were overwhelmed. Yup. New mothers and mothers of many children often are overwhelmed. They always have been - kids don't come with instructions. Oddly, no one says "Woman Up." A woman's mother may have in the 1950s, but everyone's too busy making excuses and petting women as if they were helpless dolls these days.

This is one half of the problem - men get no credit for doing what is traditionally thought of as a "woman's" job. Its just a bonus. The same goes for women - they get no credit for having careers. Women can have careers and many do, but men don't especially care. Do women use the money they make to help us buy a house, pay for dinner or otherwise "court" men? No. That's what men are supposed to do. So women keep all of their money and usually spend on clothes and handbags and makeup. Men's money doesn't belong to them - the most liberal woman in the world expects a man to always pay for things, up to and including her children. If I had a nickel every time a woman said to me "Well HE is supposed to pay for that!" I'd be a billionaire.

What do men want [once they've "Manned Up" of course - a man who hasn't manned up deserves nothing]? Men want sexy women. Is that narrow of us? Shallow? Sure. But what do you expect? Men are men. Period. Men used to be able to expect a woman to cook, but we're not allowed to expect that these days. Her career gets in the way so... no one in the family eats I guess. Or as my friend tells me, his male co-workers' wives just order take out food. I guess the men are supposed to cook too (who's left to?), but honestly, why should we? We won't get credit for it. That's traditionally a woman's role so it will never be counted. I get credit many times for cooking, but I'm a very good cook who makes many things from scratch and the women I've seen in years past have careers so that can't cook a goddamn thing and are grateful to have a home-cooked meal... at least at first.

With time men and women always revert back to their priorities - she wants money for children and a house and he wants a sexy body. Cut it, splice it, mix it, strain it, bake it any way you want, that's what the genders do.

Heaven forbid we construct a world around such desires. That would be far too practical and the National Organization "for" Women would sue everyone for disobeying them and for allowing men to live with happy wives for eternity.

So MAN UP! fellas. You have no other choice. The rewards for doing so may be sparse and slender but the powers that be are terrified of you not being a man while being terrified of you being a man. If you're too much of a man, every woman - AND I mean EVERY woman will be worried they're thighs are slightly too big for you or some other such nonsense and battle anxiety and weight loss for life; if you're not enough of a man it'll be worse: she'll worry you won't conquer and gather resources for her and her children, she'll worry she's not sexy enough to drive you to achieve, she'll worry you don't want her, it'll be the seventh level of Hell. Confused? Yeah, welcome to the Twilight Zone. Let's call it Femerica.