I only caught a few minutes at the tail end of the Laura Ingraham show yesterday morning on the radio. What a coincidence to find that she was interviewing Meg Meeker, the author of the book I just purchased Monday night, Strong Fathers Strong Daughters.
As soon as I turned on the radio someone was completing a sentence about men having to reorient themselves towards their masculine side. That's what pricked up my ears. So I started ranting in my own mind in support of that notion, especially given the categorically unmanly antics of today's crop of television fathers. It seems like every time I eyeball a contemporary sitcom, some woman is doing something masculine that the man can't handle. Last time it was shooting a gun, a cutesy inversion. The guy (I shudder to call him man) pratfalls on his butt by the recoil of a .45 while the woman quips, Oops forgot to tell you about the recoil.
This turn reminds me that a fairly serious thread in my days as a performance poet in early 90s LA was parallel to the Men's Movement. I was and am still a very large fan of Robert Bly's book "Iron John", and I can recall with some mixed fondness Robin Williams' performance in 'The Fisher King'. It was a man thing, but it was also a bourgie white man thing, there being certain aspects of 'getting in touch with your feminine side' that never appealed to any black men I ever knew. But I don't mean to draw a color line because I would add that it's also a First World white color upscale bourgie thing. As you know I'm a big fan of Dirty Jobs, and I would submit that there's a good portion of Marlboro Men still carrying the red-blooded flag.
I'm looking forward to carrying on about real men and how they should protect their daughters as well as jumping on the case of dainty men who have been feminized by .. well Feminists. I think this is going to lead to some very interesting conservatism, as I start bloviating about the Wuss Factor. It will eventually land back in the zone of Holy Matrimony, so you know what to expect. This book is going to be a big deal.
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