What IS Manly anyways?

[xXAsherahXx]

Lately I keep hearing the argument "If you're really secure with your sexuality, you wouldn't be afraid to (insert girly thing there)"

I don't get that. I really just don't see the correlation. To be more manly, you have to be a woman? Someone explain it to me.

Thoughts? Opinions? Jokes about stereotypes?

Are you manly? Or if a woman, what is manly to you?

 

[Souplex]

Masculinity can be defined as degrees of similarity to Souplex.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

I don't know or care, the concept of manliness is something predicated upon gender roles and therefore is entirely worthless to me.

 

[Hitokiri_Gensai]

I think the idea is that, if youre secure, then it doesnt matter what youre doing. Personally though, if i catch a guy dressed in heels singing to Diana Ross or something, no matter how many girls he has sex with, hes still WEIRD. xD

 

[Zantos]

Manly and sexual security aren't really the same thing. E.g. being manly is doing things like growing a beard, making fire or sharpening pencils with a knife, more-so if any of the above things are done with a bare, hairy chest. Sexual security on the other hand is being sure about your sexuality to a degree that you're comfortable doing things that could cause people to question it without worrying people will think you're batting for the other side. Things like hugging other guys, playing the game where you run your hand up each other's inside leg and see who pulls out first, and gay chicken are all examples of strong sexual security.

Essentially the problem you're having is that some people use it in situations where it doesn't make literal sense, since it tends to be used more as an expression rather than a literal statement. Things like wearing make-up or a dress are like this, not literally true as wearing a dress wouldn't automatically make you gay, but instead it's used more as an expression.

 

[MuzzleFlash]

I'm a girl, apparantly, because;

- I have long (about 3 inches) hair.
- I use hairspray to style it. (Only when I'm going out, as it takes 30 seconds and can be touched, as opposed to the usual method of spending 20 minutes with a tub of wax/gel leaving it all sticky.
- I use firearms.
- I hate soccer, and in fact most ball sports, unless ball ammunition or wheel bearings count.
- I have lower than average upper body strength. (Used to cycle a lot, so the joy when I get a chance to unleash my Greek God thighs.)

 

[Private Custard]

Things that make me manly

- I ride superbikes and laugh in the face of death (I nearly died on Thursday. A few smokes sorted me out!)
- I work in a manual trade
- I superglue my wounds shut

Things that don't make me manly

- I have feelings and I wear my heart on my sleeve
- I quite like lager shandy
- I know all the lyrics to the Grease soundtrack


/stereotyping!

 

[funguy2121]

Lately I keep hearing the argument "If you're really secure with your sexuality, you wouldn't be afraid to (insert girly thing there)"

I don't get that. I really just don't see the correlation. To be more manly, you have to be a woman? Someone explain it to me.

Thoughts? Opinions? Jokes about stereotypes?

Manly (N.) adjective, -li·er, -li·est, adverb
adjective
1.
having qualities traditionally ascribed to men, as strength or bravery.
2.
pertaining to or suitable for males: manly sports.

Since you didn't give any examples, I'm wondering if you're referring to trimming nostril hairs or waxing your chest. Quite a difference there, isn't there? Maybe your girlfriend doesn't want you to look like a scrub, or maybe she wants you to be a Teen Beat model. Not the same thing.

 

[smearyllama]

Lately I keep hearing the argument "If you're really secure with your sexuality, you wouldn't be afraid to (insert girly thing there)"

I don't get that. I really just don't see the correlation. To be more manly, you have to be a woman? Someone explain it to me.

Thoughts? Opinions? Jokes about stereotypes?

I think the point of that is that you're secure in doing things that may threaten your "bro" status. A lot of things traditionally "womanly" are pretty dang manly, if you think about it.
Like cooking. Did you know you can carve a turkey with a buzz saw?
You can. My uncle did it.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

Bacon. Bacon is manly.

 

[DarkRyter]

One's masculinity is equivalent to one's similarity to Batman.

 

[xXAsherahXx]

Lately I keep hearing the argument "If you're really secure with your sexuality, you wouldn't be afraid to (insert girly thing there)"

I don't get that. I really just don't see the correlation. To be more manly, you have to be a woman? Someone explain it to me.

Thoughts? Opinions? Jokes about stereotypes?

Manly (N.) adjective, -li·er, -li·est, adverb
adjective
1.
having qualities traditionally ascribed to men, as strength or bravery.
2.
pertaining to or suitable for males: manly sports.

Since you didn't give any examples, I'm wondering if you're referring to trimming nostril hairs or waxing your chest. Quite a difference there, isn't there? Maybe your girlfriend doesn't want you to look like a scrub, or maybe she wants you to be a Teen Beat model. Not the same thing.

I left it open so the users can decide what their definition is and how they interpret the argument I proposed.

Trimming nostril hairs is a necessity for looking nice these days, the shaving your chest thing is a little weird unless you're a swimmer

 

[Teh Jammah]

I'm sure the answer is in This webcomic [http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/]

Or alterntaively: if it's a manly act you want to have hot sweaty sex with the man in question after he's finished the act in question.

Or high five him as he heads off to bone a bunch of babes that are way, WAY out of your league, because he's just that awesome.

Basically 'Ace' Rimmer.

 

[ThatLankyBastard]

Manliness is being able to watch "Pay It Forward" without crying...

...I am not manly!

OP: Hmm... I never really thought there was an actually requirement for manliness...

I guess that if your a 450 pound giant with abs that make bullets cry and eat babies for breakfast without any milk then you are a man...

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

Lately I keep hearing the argument "If you're really secure with your sexuality, you wouldn't be afraid to (insert girly thing there)"

I don't get that. I really just don't see the correlation. To be more manly, you have to be a woman? Someone explain it to me.

Thoughts? Opinions? Jokes about stereotypes?

(Out of personal curiosity, were any of these arguments you've been hearing lately applied to My Little Pony? I'm just wondering.)

I think there are two camps of thought on this whole subject.

Firstly, you have the traditional camp. The traditional camp dictates that manly things are manly and girly things are girly. You're manly if you have lots of muscle mass, hunt or use firearms regularly. You're girly if you like the colour pink, are free about expressing emotions or enjoy watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (yeah, I went there).

Personally, I think this is kind of immature.

Then there's the second camp, which posits a more mature view of what makes a man. Whereas the previous view presented sort of a binary look at things, the second approach is more . . . gradual, for lack of a better word.

According to the second approach, manliness is less about conforming to a stereotype (be it a lumberjack or a gunslinger) and more about being confident in the choices you make and in yourself. Thus, if you do things that are traditionally not considered manly (dressing in pink, talking about feelings, watching My Little Pony), you are in fact more manly for doing them because you are confident in yourself.

There's also a simple logic to it: if someone is the manliest man alive, then anything he does would by definition be manly. If he happens to enjoy wearing a pink ballet tutu and dancing around in his spare time, then that act would, by definition, be manly.

TVTropes explains the last bit quite well:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealMenWearPink

 

[Delsana]

Obviously being a man requires one to be comfortable with their body, be fit, be able to be naked in public without having any problem with what others think because embarrassment is nothing to them and they are proud of themselves, and of course is one that partakes of cigars because that's a manly thing, and usually is dressed quite promptly, has a good taste of beer and food, generally meats and higher class things (because real men aren't stupid and thus aren't poor) and so on and so forth.

Real men of course, carry guns and sometimes SMG's and so you don't mess with them or call them not "real men".

 

[loc978]

As far as I'm concerned, manliness is measured in technical expertise and physical prowess. Taste in entertainments, art, style, and sexuality are completely unrelated to that. If you build your own cars, electronics and housing, grow and kill your own food, but also enjoy making dolls and playing house with them, and are stereotypically homosexual, you're still quite manly as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Asita]

Lately I keep hearing the argument "If you're really secure with your sexuality, you wouldn't be afraid to (insert girly thing there)"

I don't get that. I really just don't see the correlation. To be more manly, you have to be a woman? Someone explain it to me.

Simple. You're secure in who you are and thus aren't afraid to stand up for your interests. Or put another way, it's the statement that you're enough of your own person to not let peer pressure dictate your actions. Also see this.

 

[AwkwardTurtle]

Lately I keep hearing the argument "If you're really secure with your sexuality, you wouldn't be afraid to (insert girly thing there)"

I don't get that. I really just don't see the correlation. To be more manly, you have to be a woman? Someone explain it to me.

Thoughts? Opinions? Jokes about stereotypes?

Are you manly? Or if a woman, what is manly to you?

Well since this subject is kind of a repeat of what I'm sure are many other threads that ask the same question. I'm going to copy and paste my previous answer with a few edits thrown in to better fit your specific wording.

I really don't like this implication being made. I feel that giving a direct response to it inherently limits what men are and aren't allowed to do.

I myself have long since thrown the whole idea of masculinity out the window when it comes to the so called societal norm of the definition. If you really want to be man, it means to do anything and everything you want to/love to do (with the exception of things against the law obviously, I'm not encouraging mass murdering people ^^').

In my own personal opinion: To truly be a man is to stop thinking about what you 'need' to do in order to be a man.

I think a better thing to spend time thinking about is:
As a man what are the things I feel I can't do because it isn't 'masculine' enough?
After thinking about that go ahead and do those things. Get the most out of life. Don't let a ridiculous idea like "What it means to be a man" stop you.

An example of this is the growing trend of older gentlemen finding enjoyment in My Little Pony. I wonder if any of them are ashamed of liking it simply because it doesn't seem 'masculine' enough. It would be sad if they hid it and missed out on potential friends they could make a connection with through the show.

So long story short. I think that the definition is irrelevant if a person wants to live a truly whole and complete life.

Here's a fact I'd like to share with the world despite it probably not being considered 'masculine'. I bought the DS game Style Boutique and absolutely loved every minute I played it. It was by far one of the best and most addicting games I had ever bought for my DS and I still play it today.

 

[Harlief]

The idea is that your manliness is so firm and steadfast that doing something incredibly girly cannot diminish your manly manliness.