Our “Man Cards” examine compelling men of past and present and demonstrate the variation and range of masculinity.
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What defines masculinity?
Is it definable?
Does it change?
Has it?
One way to approach these age-old questions is to examine compelling men of past and present to try to divine out a set of male archetypes. So, we’re going to give it a shot. (Hint: We think the facts bear out that it’s pretty darned diverse.)
To generate our list of male archetypes, our crack data analytics team used our proprietary scientific algorithms to analyze swaths of historical and pop-cultural data. (Read: we asked our Facebook friends to name the first famous/interesting/cool/notable man that popped to mind. Historical or current. Living or dead. Actor, athlete, artist, businessman, politician, or none of the above. We then discarded George W. Bush, Jesus, and Margaret Thatcher. So. Away we go!).
Our Man Cards Are Better!
What follows are the first six archetypes, selected at random, presented in the form of “Man Cards.” The traditional definition of “Man Card” is: “An imaginary ‘card’ that men are asked to turn in if they do something feminine or not manly.” The diversity of our Man Cards turns this notion on its head; it is a testament to the fact that there is no one set of rules for what defines what is masculine or manly. Rather, masculinity is and has throughout history been a varied and wondrous thing.
The first six-pack of Man Cards included below are for Ernest Hemingway, Justin Timberlake, Ichiro Suzuki, Ben Franklin, Robert Downey Jr., and Anderson Cooper. We plan to release additional Man Cards in the coming weeks and months, and we have a stellar and growing list of men we’d like to profile.
We’d also love to hear from our readers on what other men we should profile in coming weeks and months in the series. To submit your Man Card nomination, drop us a comment below or send us a Tweet @GoodMenProject using the hashtag: #GMPManCards.
Without further adieu, we present the Good Men Project, Man Card Series, Nos. 31 – 36:
I. The Hardened Writer
II. The Amicable Pop Star
III. The Hit Man from Japan
IV. The Do It All Statesman
V. Bad Boy Turned Good – The Second Chance Kid
VI. The Silver-Haired Newsman
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Written and conceptualized by Michael Kasdan, Sports Editor and Contributor of The Good Men Project. Graphic design by Mark Greene, Executive Editor of The Good Men Project.
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Photo Credit: Mark Greene, with permission
??? Does this comment have anything to do with the above post? Very confused.
Mr. Kasdan. I cannot believe that you as an attorney cannot the relevance of the emphasis on male violence to the societal image of men. Is it clearer if I say cats are animals; therefore all animals are cats? We are bombarded with images of violent men with no reference to the fact that not all men are violent. Some men are tall. Does that mean that all men are tall?
Michael: Apparently not! Don’t worry about it. I love the emphasis on positive role models.
We don’t need another site to dump on men. What is forgotten is that not all men are violent. Instead of asking why most violence is committed by men, we should remember that not all men are violent and look at the root causes of violent behavior and also focus on the increasing violence committed by women. We have been socialized to the point that there is something wrong with being a man. We are bombarded with, ads that portray men as unnecessary blots on society; the worst case being the misandristic and totally racist V8 ad which ran defiantly… Read more »