When people talk about "beeing a man" they're usually talking about it in a possitive way, talking about the positive characteristics, most often associated with men, as opposed to "uh, men..." So looking at what popular culture sees as the male "idol" (i lack a better word atm.) might tell a bit, since it's probably the closest we get to a reflection of the publick majortys view at an idealised idol.
Look at a 90's tv/movie hero. A lot of hard-headed testosorone dudes, duke nukem beeing the prime example, since he's a caricature of others. Cop shows usually involve some bad-ass dude, more brawn than brain, but with street smarts, or whatever you'll call them.
Think arnold-style action heroes.
Now look at the last decade, CSI and all the shows like it, are at least where i live, very dominant in the cop-shows. There's still dudes with brawn, but also a lot without, and even those with brawn make more use of their keen mind, than raw muscle power. The lines between males and females and what roles they fill in these shows are also more blurred.
Look at the decline of brawn-over-brain muscle men as leads in movies, in favor for men still keeping a lot of the formers aspects, but with more thought behind. Think jason borne compared to almost any of arnolds roles.
I know this is tendencies, and not rules, so there are many exceptions, and maybe i've just been looking the places that confirm what i read, and is completely wrong, i'm no tv/movie expert, so feel free to dismiss what i wrote as ignoratn bullshit if you know stuff i don't that de-validates my points.
As for my personal oppinion, male genitals, gender is not important to me as in what values a person posesses. Almost any possitive value i can find mainly seen as masculine/feminine would also IMO be a + in the otehr gender.
Beeing strong, tough (the good parts, not beeing dumb, easily fooled etc), Like an action movie hero is usually seen as a mainly masculine trait, but i find it an admireable trait in women as well.
Beeing careing and compasionate is often a value associated more with females, but males showing these traits also come off as better people.
I can't think of any value, i would consider a plus with one gender and not with the other.
So to sum up, "beeing a man" if meant as a possitive thing, and not just objective description would in my head be beeing a good person.