Trend: Manliness

What does it mean to be a man? You may have noticed any number of reports regarding the diminishing presence of men on American college campuses. The current ratio is four women for every three men. Some liberal arts campuses are already hitting a 60/40 female to male imbalance. This is the ratio, according to campus recruiters, where women weigh the lack of "available" men on campus negatively. If current patterns continue, this trend will have a substantial impact in the workplace in the home as well as in our public institutions.

Anecdotally, I have also noticed an increasing preponderance of moms as the sole attending parent at youth sporting events, an area once much more the province of Dads. Further, moms have assumed an increasingly involved (and taxing) role as psychic, spiritual, professional and social director for their children. Whither men?

In the media, male images are all over the map. Common are the bumbling father, the urban metrosexual, the Man Show/Howard Stern neanderthal, the kinda disturbing misogyny of some rap/hip-hop artists to the pure testosterone of 24's Jack Bauer. So what's manliness in this postfeminist era?

Harvard prof Harvey C. Mansfield (Manliness) and Nora Ephron (Self Made Man) present two of the latest of many recent attempts to divine the role of men in today's society. Compelling, thought provoking and controversial stuff. Link to a Mansfield podcast.