What’s happened to the chaps?

Mr Withheld

When has Toby Young ever been considered a bastion of manliness?

Alan Campbell

A bit of hair-envy going on here.

Cynthia

Alan, that's what a girl would say.

Rinson Drei

A couple of things.
First, peacocks are male. Humanity is the exceptional in an animal kingdom full of dull females and attractive males.
Second, the idea that the Arab/Persian Islamic world is full of manly-men types should easily be shot down by comparative sales of cologne and Italian shoes in the US and Iran.
Third, as more of our men begin coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, look for a sharp reordering of women's criteria.

Lance

"If you’re looking for courage, tenacity and strength, look no further than the current generation of young women."

This is nonsense. Women are taking advantage of systemic privileges that men created and enforce for them. Quick, name me a female trailblazer in math, science, technology or business? The only power women acquire is that which they convince men to give up.

John Rich

Here in America, the Nanny State and its intrusions into our lives shares the blame.

Take the admonition "don't run with scissors" and expand it; our society is producing milksops afraid to run lest they skin their knees.

Exceptions? Scots-Irish Americans, mostly from our South, who man our military. Big-city males? Neutered.

Lee

A) Men during the Restoration were into shoe fashion, clothing fashion, make-up and hair. So "manly men" weren't always manly men.
B) Humans are NOT the exception in the animal kingdom. You can't compare birds and mammals. And among mammals, even primates, sexual dimorphism is usually expressed through body mass and canine tooth size, and to a lesser degree, pelage.
C) Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin, Madame CJ Walker... Unless you meant current female trailblazers...
D) On the whole, I do think Toby Young has a point.

Jeff

I would point out that it was a tiny percentage of men during the Restoration who went limp.

Fred

Sir: you're a genius!

witwoud

Nice article. I think there's a backlash against girlie boys from women themselves, however. The massive popularity of shows like Mad Men and Life on Mars, which are watched by millions of women and a handful of men, are proof of this. They are a wonderful exercise in having your cake and eating it; the film-makers certainly know their stuff. On the one hand there's a plucky female protagonist (brilliant at her job but ignored) for women to identify with, and on the other hand there are hairy-backed sexist gorillas to secretly drool over. If that plucky female protagonist ever became a powerful female boss with a team of girlie boys at her beck and call, I doubt the shows would be quite so popular.

It may be true that feminism killed off Gene Hunt, but women still desire him. Intellectually, however, they have to disapprove of him too.