Finally, my first blog post! In the interest of starting off with a “bang,” I suppose it would only be appropriate to write about a truly exciting group of people in history, the sophists of ancient Greece. Okay, maybe exciting is a term to never have been associated with sophists, but they do act as an important launching point for this series of blogs that are to come. Sophists were men who traveled around ancient Greece, around the 5th century BCE, to teach courses in several different disciplines for a price. The actual degree of expertise these individuals actually held was up for debate, but they were experts in their use of rhetoric in persuasion and debate. Think of them as extreme precursors to Ben Shapiro or Simon Sinek.
As I sit here typing away on a web page I created to discuss masculinity and society, I think of those sophists as a parallel to modern-day predatory peddlers of masculinity. If you are a guy reading this, you may know who I am talking about. These are the men and women, but mostly men, who sell courses to down-on-their-luck males who are searching for ways they can overcome a problem in their life. Yes, as some sorry guy scours the web for ways to get a better job, become more attractive, or save a relationship/marriage, some self-proclaimed gurus suggest they have the magic “3 to five secrets” to solve your problems.
It is of little surprise that their solution almost always seems to revolve around appealing to masculinity. To be honest, this is just low-hanging fruit for many to capitalize on. If there is an insecurity most men share at any given point in their lives it is the fear they are not “manly” enough in some way. Masculine identity and success are narratively tied together when it comes to careers and relationships.
Thanks to the wonderful algorithms created by programmers for social media sites, any search on self-improvement will undoubtedly lead to a barrage of advertisements for “How to Man” or “Become a Real Man” courses. These courses are usually created by a guy with a beard, a decent build (not overweight), and possibly sporting a pair of Duluth underwear to model a desired look. Of course, the women who create similar programs tend to forgo the beard, but I can not speak for the Duluth underwear. Anyhow, after long teases that include generic lines positioning the viewer to recognize that he may be insecure in some way, an offer will come with a limited-time price so that the macho man or woman can sit there and tell you stuff you probably already know: Work on your appearance, become more assertive, become more confident, be happy with yourself (ironic, eh?), be more autonomous (again, ironic).
Working on these characteristics is good advice for anyone to follow, man or woman. There are baseline behaviors that are desirable regardless of sex. Where I give pause is whether these cookie-cutter solutions actually address the nuanced problems people face. Is being more “masculine” THE solution? What if being too “masculine” is the problem? Is it possible some go a little overboard in the performative aspect of being a man?
There is also the problem of making men question their own masculinity for the sake of recognizing and conforming to a hegemonic norm. In a sense, the fact a guy decides not to be stereotypically masculine in some way is masculine in itself (I will surely unpack this in future posts). To be a man is to decide what is not necessary to follow and establish their autonomy. This makes me wonder if seeking simplistic answers to life’s problems from courses in manhood undermines modern masculinity that demands rational and logical approaches to such problems.
Of course, it does not matter what I think. As long as there is money to be made, then these classes will continue to be produced and sold. Just as the sophist was able to make a living through the convincing use of language, so too will the hundreds of uncredentialed men and women who prey on guys in search of answers. With a strong cultural blueprint existing for what men are expected to be, it will always be a little too easy for the communicatively savvy to hold us to it.
