He’s Being Rugged, And We Can’t Have That
In the pages of the Guardian, masculinity is once again being piously disdained. This time by Mr Grayson Perry, a part-time transvestite and maker of unattractive pottery:
The Turner prize-winning artist has turned his sights on the survivalist [Bear Grylls] and his exceptionally rugged version of masculinity, arguing that it isn’t fit for the 21st century. “He celebrates a masculinity that is useless,” Perry said… Perry said that the masculine ideal presented by shows such as The Island, in which Grylls is currently putting a third group of hapless contestants through survivalist hell, is making it harder for men to successfully negotiate modern life. “Men might be good at taking the risk of stabbing someone or driving a car very fast, but when it comes to opening up, men are useless,” Perry told the Radio Times in an interview to promote his new series, All Man.
And then, because we haven’t had one in a while, a classic Guardian sentence:
“Masculinity is a decorative feature that is essentially counter-productive.”
Well, it’s true that rafting skills and urine-drinking may be niche concerns and of obvious practical use only to explorers, hardy outdoors types, and people whose package holidays have gone catastrophically wrong. But – and it’s quite a big one – there’s something to be said for seeing people in unfamiliar and rather trying circumstances achieving more – sometimes much more – than they thought they ever could. Which is both the premise and appeal of Mr Grylls’ various, quite popular TV programmes. However, showing people that they may be much more capable than they previously believed, resulting in a sense of great personal satisfaction, is apparently unimportant, a mere “hangover” from more primitive, less Guardian-friendly times.
Regarding the claim that masculinity is functionally obsolete and is now merely decorative, and at risk of seeming unkind, readers are invited to compare the mugshots of Mr Perry and Mr Grylls, these two contrasting expressions of modern masculinity, and ponder which is likely to attract the more widespread and vigorous sexual attention. Or indeed which of them might be more likely to prevail in a more hazardous physical exchange – say, an attempted mugging. And on the supposed uselessness of archetypal masculine skills, Mr Grylls’ lengthy television career, his extensive property portfolio, and his estimated annual earnings from UK merchandising alone of £3.3 million, rather speaks for itself.
and people whose package holidays have gone catastrophically wrong.
Snork.
Mr. Perry looks as if he is coming off a meth bender.
The commenters over at Tim’s place are already having fun with this one:
http://www.timworstall.com/2016/04/26/depends-a-bit-really
I think Grayson Perry is pretty marvellous and usually too smart for this sort of faddle. He, of all people, should be sceptical of the idea that ‘usefulness’ is the true measure of worth.
The commenters over at Tim’s place are already having fun with this one
I see Steve’s on form. That’s what I get for going shopping in the morning.
The spam filter is being bolshie again. If anyone has trouble with comments not appearing, email me and I’ll set then free.
What I think irks about articles of this kind – and the Guardian churns out some variation every few months – is the ostentatious disregard for something that, stripped of its particulars, isn’t silly at all. Setting aside the specifics of raft-building, urine-filtering or whatever, which most of us will never have to worry about, it seems to me that what Mr Grayson is disdaining – and by extension, what we are expected to disdain – is a general air of competence, of practical application (wilderness or not), and of being able and willing to give daunting things a go. Which, sadly, isn’t as common as one might think.
It’s been my experience that most women love the decorative maleness that I possess and I have witnessed it in other manly looking men with whom I am acquainted.
Speaking of being rugged, I never wanted to be a potter anyway, I always wanted to be a … lumberjack!
Well, I mean, Mr. Grylls is 15 years younger than Mr. Perry. Those whose physical gifts are fast-diminishing will always carp against the young and vital. It is a fact of life. Watch for Mr. Perry’s new program in 2046 when he asserts that the essence of modern masculinity is a pair of nice warm slippers, a warm fire, and a holocopy of The Guardian.
I apologize in advance, Mr. Perry and his wife.
Physician, heal thyself, if you have any time left over from working on your other half.
Yeah boy, howdy, why this clown gets to comment on masculinity is a wonder of the universe. I am a bit disappointed in HRH, though, as to why she didn’t throw this looney out on his ear when he showed up to collect his CBE in a dress.
An amusing anecdote: “No. No. Yes, I mean no.”
…at risk of seeming unkind, readers are invited to compare the mugshots of Mr Perry and Mr Grylls, these two contrasting expressions of modern masculinity, and ponder which is likely to attract the more widespread and vigorous sexual attention.
On a related note, Iowahawk has this to say about a certain aspect of “modern” masculinity.
On a related note,
Heh. Oh, I dunno. Those shorts are pretty intimidating.
“Part-time transvestite”?
The mind boggles. Does he punch a time clock?
ok, one more: Oh, the Irish.
“Ireland’s anti-discrimination quango has rejected claims that Pastafarianism is a religion after an Irishman insisted on wearing a colander for his driving licence photograph.”
No sense of humor, I guess.
Insert obligatory RAH quote, the one that starts “A human being should be able to…”
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/12051-a-human-being-should-be-able-to-change-a-diaper
I think Grayson Perry is pretty marvellous and usually too smart for this sort of faddle.
Thing is, dismissing masculinity as somehow obsolete or hopelessly problematic is very much in fashion, at least in certain circles. Say, gatherings of pinheads. And so Mr Perry’s commentary, or rather his posturing, reminds me of this achingly smug man-bashing session in the pages of the New Statesman – in an issue guest-edited by Mr Perry, oddly enough – and where leftist pundits and assorted luvvies told us that men – and straight white men in particular – are a “dying class,” a “rotten, mushroomy class,” whose collective actions have done nothing but blacken the planet and who should either embrace extinction or “end up in a zoo.”
“…it [masculinity] isn’t fit for the 21st century.” This is why we need RuPaul.
where leftist pundits and assorted luvvies told us that men – and straight white men in particular – are a “dying class,” a “rotten, mushroomy class,” whose collective actions have done nothing but blacken the planet and who should either embrace extinction or “end up in a zoo.”
The inevitable result of failure to teach or learn history. People grow up thinking that the culture around them just came from the air, and therefore they believe they can change it any way they want, and all the good stuff (like working sewers, clean water, antibiotics, and iPads) will, of course, just naturally continue to be available.
This is why we need RuPaul.
A while ago, I caught a glimpse of RuPaul’s Drag Race and was disappointed to find it didn’t involve any cars. I can’t be alone in thinking actual drag racing would make the series unmissable. Enormous hair, fake boobs and yards of billowing chiffon all thundering along at 200 mph.
…told us that men – and straight white men in particular – are a “dying class,” a “rotten, mushroomy class,” whose collective actions have done nothing but blacken the planet and who should either embrace extinction or “end up in a zoo.”
I keep seeing such “telling us” things, most often from the feminists but they continue to gather fellow travelers, as this post shows. I know I’m not the first to ask this but who exactly is going to extinct us or put us in a zoo? The unicorns that rule their lollipop fantasy worlds? I’m never around when this nonsense gets said or I’d raise the point myself, but I’m real curious how such plays out.
Also, I’m reminded of this…
Including HRM. How many “feminists” can do this today?
…yards of billowing chiffon all thundering along at 200 mph
Makes for a good visual, but I’d go easy on the chiffon. Remember Isadora Duncan.
Makes for a good visual, but I’d go easy on the chiffon.
No capes!
Simple case of the media normalizing insanity via the shock effect sales ploy.
I’d go easy on the chiffon. Remember Isadora Duncan.
Ah. Well. Yes. Let’s assume the vehicles in question have been modified so as to minimise the risk of catastrophic fashion entanglement and subsequent loss of fabulousness. And they’d probably need big pedals too. Slamming on the brakes in eight-inch heels while maintaining a perfect pout could prove a touch dicey.
Oh, come on. You know you’d watch.
An amusing anecdote: “No. No. Yes, I mean no.”
Siiiiigggggghhh.
Indeed a reminder that the purpose of the Secret Service is coordinating protection, where the perfectly innocent office holder thus has to put up with the current results . . .
Let’s assume the vehicles in question have been modified so as to minimise the risk of catastrophic fashion entanglement
Must we?
Oh, come on. You know you’d watch.
Of course I would. And as far as the eight-inch heels are concerned, I remember an episode of Mythbusters in which the hosts tested the hypothesis that high heels (and other assorted types of footwear) could impede the proper operation of a car. If I recall correctly, the conclusion was that, actually, they’re not that much of a hindrance. I think it’s snow boots that presented the greatest difficulty, mainly because they make it difficult to mash fewer than two or three pedals at a time.
…a “dying class,” a “rotten, mushroomy class,” whose collective actions have done nothing but blacken the planet…
At least, assuming he is not being sarcastic, this Tony Parsons guy seems to get it:
If he is not being sarcastic, I have to wonder how that slipped in amongst the other dreck.
an episode of Mythbusters…
Ah yes, I remember it well.
Steven Crowder’s outstanding rant at an SJW type.
This was evidently touched off by some clown(s) trying to shout down Christina Hoff Sommers (around 16:30 mark) during a U Mass panel discussion. Milo is also a guest artist. The Q&A at the end is a nice biopsy of leftist pathology.
Everything that makes Grayson Perry’s world livable, from the sidewalks to the HVAC, to the public sanitation, to the roof over his head is the result of that which he detests.
There is no magical option where he can have one without the other, and he isn’t smart enough to tell anyone else how to live.
He may go f*ck himself.
I never heard of Grayson Perry, so I googled him to see who it was who could pontificate so seriously about masculinity. I … I didn’t know. I just didn’t know
When my kids were younger, we used to have their birthday parties in our house.
For the boys, we would sometimes hire the community hall or 5 a side soccer pitch and run them into the ground.
Even when we got back to the house, many would still want to play football in the garden, or generally batter the heads off each other. I would generally be in the middle of it all, and only took a break when all of the kids had had their fill, and were content to go indoors or just sit down to eat
After several such parties, my wife pointed out that the kids who kept me playing the football and chasing/ wrestling/ fighting games the longest were those who were being reared by single mothers.
It is something that has always come to mind, when I see masculinity dismissed as a social construct or as something problematic.
From the G.
Go girls……
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/02/female-defence-ministers-tweet-photograph
The Russian defence minister…What a pussy….
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/poland-barrs-russian-defense-minister-entering-airspace-report-article-1.1921421
From the G.
Go girls……
Well if that doesn’t qualify someone to be a minister of defense, I don’t know what does. Europe is clearly in the hands of top men. Sorry, Top. Women.
Grayson looks like the love child of Harpo Marx and Roger Daltrey.
The inevitable result of failure to teach or learn history. People grow up thinking that the culture around them just came from the air, and therefore they believe they can change it any way they want, and all the good stuff (like working sewers, clean water, antibiotics, and iPads) will, of course, just naturally continue to be available.
Indeed there is a sort of Magical thinking at work with these types of people (also the insufferably smug New Statesman article). All the ease with which we navigate and enjoy modern society and its many benefits seems to just have “happened”. Modernity is born fully formed and requires no upkeep, no sacrifice, no hard labour or exposure to danger. In fact these realities are often cheekily subsumed under the labels technology and progress.
Feminists too seem to believe that the extensive health and social benefits that women benefit from in developed countries just exist as inviolable “rights” in themselves that will always be granted because they are rights. The preconditions for this beneficial redistribution of wealth under the guise of rights is seemingly irrelevant, what matters is that women must have these rights as a matter of principle, and if we need more Magic to make that happen then so be it.
“Masculinity is a decorative feature that is essentially counter-productive.”
Well that’s certainly a queer theory.
But – and it’s quite a big one –
I like big buts, and I cannot lie….
Joe at 21.33 I emphasise with your pain. If I knew your address, I’d send you a get well card.
What set Crowder off in the video above.
Please note the fetching lass at 0:35 and again at 1:40 or so – one has to wonder how these types were raised to think that is either acceptable behavior, or an effective debate technique, regardless of how perfect an imitation of a two year old it is.
OH, oh, oh…that part from 1:42-1:48, that is pure comedy gold that is. I could watch those six-seven seconds on a loop for hours. Somewhere up in heaven Chris Farely is blushing for having been such a poser.
“Enormous hair, fake boobs and yards of billowing chiffon all thundering along at 200 mph.” David, from your blog to RuPaul’s eyes….
Please note the fetching lass at 0:35…
I thought it was Ben Tameifuna.
“Please note the fetching lass at 0:35…”
I’m sure she could fetch any number of things.
one has to wonder how these types were raised to think that is either acceptable behavior, or an effective debate technique,
Well, it isn’t meant to be an effective debating technique, in the sense of testing ideas and exchanging facts, etc. You won’t find much good faith. That’s why these creatures rarely hang around for the Q&A sessions that Milo, Dr Sommers and Ben Shapiro usually hold after their talks. Holding fire until the Q&A and asking questions calmly and on a fair footing would risk failure and public humiliation. (What if all that precious rage is based on an error, a lie, a made-up statistic? What if the speaker isn’t intimidated by a pile of question-begging buzzwords and incoherent slogans?)
And waiting for the Q&A would be much too polite – to the speaker and the audience – and less likely to disrupt a speaker’s train of thought and their confidence – which is, of course, the goal. It isn’t about principles or reality, or getting to the facts of the matter; it’s about shutting people down and exercising power.
And this isn’t the face of someone who wants to have a debate in any meaningful sense. This is a fat, plain, rather stupid girl letting us know how resentful she is, how much she dislikes the world.
It’s psychodrama.