Modern Primate

There’s this really excellent article on masculinity over on Vice that’s so good I wish I had less integrity so I could lift the entire thing, word for word, instead of linking out like decent person. So here’s a choice sample.

I hate the way men are stereotyped as sex-starved cock robots. It’s just such a basic pop culture premise that it doesn’t even get questioned; men want to fuck. All the time. Ideally while watching shit blow up.

But masculinity is far more complicated and subtle than that. Yes, it involves getting laid. But for me, fucking isn’t even in the top five attributes of what it means to be a man. My top five are:

• Providing

• Producing

• Strength

• Loyalty

• Farting

Fucking comes sixth. To me, sex isn’t even about sex. Fundamentally, it’s about acceptance, having somebody desire you enough to allow you to envelop them and wanting that person to envelop you in return. When the culture tells me I’m not having enough of it, it seems like what it’s telling me is that the culture itself does not accept me. What can I do to become more acceptable? Buy those jeans, drive that car, smother myself in Axe body spray. It’s a losing battle.

Read the rest over on Vice: MIND THOUGHTS… WITH MICHAEL IAN BLACK – LET’S NOT FUCK, SHALL WE?