This is an AT&T commercial currently running on TV (May 2014), and I find it very offensive. But I also think it speaks very loud to the rise of bullies in America these days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lubeIPY_B3Q
The “man” depicted is truly a “girly-man.” He conducts himself like a dog who has shit on the living room floor and is waiting for the master to return home and beat the living shit out of him… He makes my skin crawl!
Robert Bly, in his book, “Iron John” speaks to this when he talks about “soft men.” I strongly recommend Bly’s book to anyone interested in this transformation we have seen to “soft males.” This is from a review I found on Bly’s book: “Iron John is about taking men back, through myth and legend, to the source of their masculinity, and finding a middle path between the greater awareness of the ‘sensitive new age guy’, and the power and vitality of the warrior.”
Yesterday I saw this commercial just before I headed put to the bank. For some reason or another I had an “ah-ha” moment – it dawned on me that with this transformation a vacuum has been created. We no longer seem to have the “heroes” or role models I grew up with. Men like John Wayne, or the Lone Ranger, or ‘Hoppy’ or Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton or Dean Martin and so forth. Nah, we have all these “girly-men” running around these days.
This moron was recently used to promote obamacare… fuck. (Your skin crawling yet?)
Anyway, with our young boys being beaten into submission for being boys, I think we are creating a vacuum wherein ‘bullies’ step forward to fill. There are fewer and fewer men/boys with the “right sense” of character to stand up to them. Well, duh!
It’s “okay” for my 6-year old grandson to walk through the school hallway these days holding hands with another boy – it’s cute. But he will be suspended for playing ‘Cowboys and Indians’ out on the playground! Bullshit!
Well I for one, will not buy into this crap. I plan to have long talks with my grand sons about what it means to be a man in America. Talks that include topics like character, integrity, loyalty, honor and so forth… and about standing up to bullies!