The reason you have never read any decent books on male identity is that very few have been written which aren’t simple appeals or apologies. It’s also probably because women have defined men in the popular discourse, mostly in negative terms. Historically, western men didn’t have to define themselves because they simply were the dominant force, and dominant forces don’t need too much introspection to continue dominating. Brute force and ignorance works, in the circumstances in which men are allowed to operate with freedom.
I will make two assumptions. Primarily, I will assume that the reader accepts that men and women are intellectually and morally equal, and secondarily, that the reader understands that glib bullshit like ‘all men are potential rapists’ should have gotten the coiner of the phrase a good solid gin and tonic over their head for offensive drivel. The cretin in question might equally as usefully have said ‘all men are potential trampolinists’ or ‘all men are potential mountaineers’. Just because I am physically capable of something does not mean that I have the potential will to actually do it.
So, I am a man, and the main result of that is that Y-chromosome is that people won’t trust me to look after their kids (sometimes gender discrimination is awesome) and toilet queues are shorter. It also means that I am allowed to pretend my shopping is utilitarian and mission-focused, even if I do spend an inordinate amount of time looking at colognes and linen suits. Finally, I get to be taller than most women and relied upon to understand why a builder would drill holes in walls at stupid angles. I have an excuse for not going to the doctor, because I have nothing needing swabbed or smeared, and if I am in pain, there are pills for that.
The thing most irritating about the identity of a man, and the implications of that identity, is the way in which woolly-brained suppositions and assumptions about what that actually makes me are allowed to propagate. Like typhoons of pop-ignorance stalking the public discourse, if Germaine Greer says it, some utter dimwits will think that it holds a grain of truth, particularly if it’s about men. Never mind that she and I both run at the mouth almost as much as we run at the typewriter.
