Discovering the Art of Manliness(.com)

I re-watched American Beauty the other night and it struck me in a way that it didn’t when I was ten and had found it in my parents’ movie collection. I had been too horrified by Lester Burnham’s attraction to his daughter’s friend to appreciate the message of the plastic bag scene. I had also forgotten the major twist of the end, so my jaw dropped to the floor once more. (I think that’s the best way to experience great movies – watch it then forget it so you can watch it again).

On another note, I was so moved by Lester’s discovery of the beauty of life that I searched the web for movie reviews and I found an interesting interpretation of the movie on a site called masculinity-movies.com that argued the movie contained important lessons of masculinity, i.e. Lester Burnham as representative of the sedated male of modern domesticity who eventually learns to liberate his inner Wild Man. I scoffed at first, but I soon realized that the article not only took itself seriously, but was presented seriously on a coherent website. Not only that, but this website aligned itself with other established sites of the same movement. To get to the heart of things I clicked on a promising link, artofmanliness.com.

So it appears that there is a generation of men who are concerned with their masculinity, their male identity within culture and as individuals, and from this concern many books and websites have emerged hoping to provide some masculine guidance. To a Berkeley student surrounded by the liberal discourses of Women and Gender Studies and generally progressive thinking this movement seemed archaic and unnecessary. Hello? The 20th and 21st centuries are all about working towards women’s liberation; men have had all of history to define and concretize their masculinity. But then again maybe redefining women also means redefining men. And this upheaval of identities understandably leads to some confusion, and thus results in sites like the artofmanliness.com.

That said, there is actually no need to approach this site from the controversial angle of gender identity. The artofmanliness.com is a very fun site and useful for anybody, including girls. In particular, there are some very informative articles in the “Manly Skills” section. This includes “Study Tactics of the Successful Gentleman Scholar” about how to study efficiently (like how instead of browsing this site I should have been studying), and also, “How to Field Dress a Squirrel,” pictures included, for any of those anticipating desperate times ahead (in case of unemployment or a zombie invasion, Berkeley squirrels could provide some real sustenance).

See for yourself what manly arts you could incorporate into your life at the artofmanliness.com.

I find myself continually returning to this site, particularly for its plentiful weight lifting tips. In addition, there are many useful how-to posts with only a nominally masculine slant, like How to Parallel Park like a Man (as I’d say every driver in Berkeley necessarily does), or an interesting masculine twist, like 10 Survival Uses for a Tampon (better addressed to females since we actually carry those). I first stumbled on this site last year and wrote the above as a writing sample for my Caliber application. As a graduating senior I’ve become increasingly reminiscent, so I dug this up as a tribute to my awesome blogging experience with Caliber. Apply next semester!