Manliness – Confidence in a risky situation?

Are you manly? Mr. Harvey Mansfield has some thoughts that will challenge you on this. Harvey Mansfield is a 73 year old government professor and conservative elder statesman of Harvard University. And, he’s manly. Indeed, he’s got a book out on the subject as well, entitled Manliness.

Actually, in his words,he’s most interested helping to “convince skeptical readers-above all,educated women” of his argument that:

“it should be recognized that men will be manly and sometimes a bit bossy…and that women will recognize manliness with a smile by checking it while giving it something to do, or, on occasion, by urging it on.”

To some, Mr. Mansfield is really driving a further misogynist view at Harvard and in academia in general (you can read that view at Media Girl’s blog at this link here). To others, Mr Mansfiled is simply bringing forward the view that men need not be afraid to be manly.

But if the definition of being manly is, “confidence in a risky situation”. Then where do you stand in this? Mr Mansfield has listed the following as those whom he would consider manly (remember our defintion above):

• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Humphrey Bogart
• Donald Rumsfeld
• Margaret Thatcher
• Hillary Clinton

Surprised? I was. And it made me rethink my definition of manliness. Frankly, I didn’t think myself more manly, not by a long shot. Many FtM’s are far more manly than I’ll ever be. But Mr. Mansfields’s provative stance makes me rethink the kind of person I want to be and the kind of heart I want as I face life’s challenges.

Mr. Mansfield’s model of Manliness though is Achilles. In Mr. Mansfield’s view Achilles was a man of virtue and all men of virtue are fit to rule because they resolve to defend a cause larger than themselves – a manly action that is the best and truest of it’s kind. But regardless of gender, I would suggest such a character trait is something that all of us would want to aspire to. The alternative seems craven.

Jennifer Boylan mentions in her book, “She’s Not There“, that really we all need to have the courage to face our personal dragons and be courageous enough to face them down and slay them. That’s all she was trying to do. While that sounds pretty manly to me, isn’t that the essence of the kind of courage you want to have? Think about that scene from The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, where Eowyn slays the leader of the Ring Wraiths. Now that’s courage!

What we all need to do is consider what kind of people we need to be, not whether our gender allows us to be this way or that way. Surely, when a man opens the door for me, I find it nice and I like it. I think he’s being a gentleman, But to fight a cause I think we all want to consider how we can be manly – to be confident in risky situations not for gender gain, but so that the causes we fight for that are larger than ourselves can be slain and victory won for many.

(source material for this article from The Wall Street Jornal, 03/04/2006, page A8, mountain top photo courtesy of eWeaver )