David Boze
It's the must-have election resource of 2012! It's a pocket-sized collection that reveals not just what the president says, but what he means! Buy it now on Amazon.com
Look inside: Read a sample
Kumar Joe, the Singing Crow is the tale of a little crow who was born with a heart for music, but not a voice for it.Buy it now on Amazon.com
Look inside: Read a sample
Most popular
Bonneville Seattle is raising funds for the construction of a second Fisher House at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma and we need your help.Birth of son inspires man to go on quest for masculinity
on May 15, 2012 @ 6:37 pm (Updated: 5:36 am - 5/17/12 )
 Faced with the prospect of raising a son, Joel Stein decided it was time to brush up on his man skills. The experience is the subject of his book "Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity." (Image courtesy Grand Central Publishing) |
Faced with the prospect of raising a son, a father-to-be described as having an "effete nature," decided it was time to brush up on his man skills.
"I wasn't looking to be the manliest man. I was just looking to be on par with the rest of America," said Joel Stein, TIME columnist and author of "Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity," in an appearance on 770 KTTH's David Boze Show.
Looking back through the ages, Stein said he's observed a marked decline in manliness.
"If you watch Don Draper [of Mad Men], he's so manly. When people ask him if he wants to do something, he just says 'no,' whereas when people ask me if I want to do something I don't want to do, I say, 'Oh I would love to, but I have plans with my wife I can't get out of,' said Stein.
He said the Mad Men study even shows a sharp decrease in manliness from one generation to the next. "If you watch the episodes with his [Don Draper's] dad, who is coming home from the mine with his face dirty and he comes home and just beats his wife and kids, he's far manlier."
Stein said as technology advances, he believes men will continue to lose their masculinity.
"I think if you go back further and further in history, masculinity is always dying out. It's mostly technology," said Stein. "We gain a lot because we get iPhones, but we lose a lot too. I think we should try and retain some of that."
To retain his own manliness, Stein embarked on his quest, that involved taking a 24-hour shift with LA firefighters, going to Army boot camp, rebuilding a house, and other manly activities, like hunting.
Of all the manly challenges he took on, fighting with a UFC fighter sounds the most painful.
"I got the UFC to train me and let me go one round with Randy Couture, which is the stupidest of the stupid things I did," said Stein.
But the punches were not for nothing.
"It did teach me that when you get punched in the face, it hurts, and two seconds later you're standing back up. It's awful, but it's not that bad," said Stein.
His lessons weren't all so tough.
"I had a Lamborghini for three days. That was just pure fun," said Stein.
He said he found a ton of his manly experiences valuable, but the best lesson came from Couture and his father, who told him:
"You can't control who your son is. That's a fool's errand, trying to shape him into who you want him to be," said Stein.
But he said he will try to teach him some manly things if he's open to it.
"I am going to expose him to things that he's not wholly objecting to."
By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor
Whether it's floating on Green Lake, eating shrimp tacos at Agua Verde, or taking weekend drives out to the Cascades, she loves to enjoy the Pacific Northwest lifestyle as much as humanly possible.
Bonneville Media encourages site users to express their opinions by posting comments. Our goal is to maintain a civil dialogue in which readers feel comfortable. At times, the comments can descend to personal attacks. Please do not engage in such behavior. We encourage your thoughtful comments which: have a positive and constructive tone, are on topic, are respectful toward others and their opinions. Bonneville reserves the right to remove comments which do not conform to these criteria.
-
roomtemp wrote...Good interview Dave...May 16, 2012 1:19 pm{ "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }- Reply
- Report this as abuse
-
roomtemp wrote...While it's on the topic of kids...May 16, 2012 4:02 pm{ "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
- Reply
- Report this as abuse
-
2112 wrote...I read Stein every weekMay 16, 2012 4:34 pm{ "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }- Reply
- Report this as abuse
-
Drool wrote..."You can't control who your son is. That's a fool's errand, trying to shape him into who you want him to be,"May 16, 2012 6:11 pm{ "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }- Reply
- Report this as abuse
-
messiah101 wrote...Taking Manhood lessons from a TV show Ain'tMay 17, 2012 8:30 am{ "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
- Reply
- Report this as abuse