We're unemotional, rational, power driven, highly competitive, and capable of machine like efficiency at work. As men we know this is absurd. Most of us know these stereotypes are mythology, but the statistics says otherwise. At our worst we are like the Marlboro man, heading west, alone, needing no one. We have conscripted ourselves to isolation and loneliness, a lonely John Wayne.
Most men still define themselves by what they do in their vocation.
I vividly remember the man from Maine who says he wasn't going to participate in the evening discussion. Now we are exploring uncharted territory, with all of the missteps and false starts that such exploration requires. The 90's man is a confusing amalgam of ideas and influences. What is missing here of course is the development of our nurturing and caretaking selves, for others and for ourselves. They just don't measure up.