A "typical man" by today's standards?

[MagicM]

So why do I feel so uneasy about the fact that I didn't do more? Is it down to some sort of deep-rooted sense of masculinity, or chivalry, a sense that as a man I have an obligation to help a woman in distress?


Josh Barrie explains why he didn't help a damsel in distress having a argument which a very large man who kept blocking her from leaving and concludes by asking:

Are women in fact better at diffusing a situation like this anyway? Would, say, a respectable middle-aged lady asking the man to calm down and asking if the crying woman was OK have a better chance of peaceful outcome than a hungover 24-year-old male, clutching a laptop bag and a bottle of coconut water? Who knows. Perhaps I'm looking for excuses.

I’d like to think that had the guy been physically assaulting the woman, I would have acted, regardless of the likelihood of being smacked square in the jaw. But anything less than that, and it's likely I'd act the same way again. Take the safe option. Stay out of harm's way. Remember the stories about helpful bystanders finding themselves on the end of a good kicking.

Perhaps it's all the inevitable result of men's roles and outlooks changing over the past generation or so. We're more emotional, more feminist, less sexist, but consequently less chivalrous, less likely to step in a help a woman in need. Does all this make me less of a man? Or does it, at least by today's standards, make me a typical man?


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11000595/Why-didnt-I-stop-to-help-a-woman-in-need.html

[Milo]

Let's hope this kind of mamby-pamby hipster does NOT represent the current typical man.

Coconut water, my ass.

[injest]

I think that he is struggling to justify his own weakness and fear by blaming society.

Typical liberal victimhood thinking: it's not my fault, it's the feminist movement, TV, whatever

Long time ago, I read in a lady's magazine that if you are in the city and someone harasses you in a crowd to look for a blue collar worker and make eye contact with them. They are the ones most likely to offer assistance. Maybe because they work with their hands? They are used to using their muscles and know what it feels like to be hurt...they aren't afraid of the unknown. I think white collar workers can get into a mindset that makes them shy away from physical work and the possibility of pain.

a roughneck would think a) I can take this fool and b) what's the worst that can happen? the guy might throw a punch? big whoop...they know the power of the bluff and are sure of their own strength and their inherent 'role' as the protector.
 

[Milo]

I think that he is struggling to justify his own weakness and fear by blaming society.

Typical liberal victimhood thinking: it's not my fault, it's the feminist movement, TV, whatever

Long time ago, I read in a lady's magazine that if you are in the city and someone harasses you in a crowd to look for a blue collar worker and make eye contact with them. They are the ones most likely to offer assistance. Maybe because they work with their hands? They are used to using their muscles and know what it feels like to be hurt...they aren't afraid of the unknown. I think white collar workers can get into a mindset that makes them shy away from physical work and the possibility of pain.

a roughneck would think a) I can take this fool and b) what's the worst that can happen? the guy might throw a punch? big whoop...they know the power of the bluff and are sure of their own strength and their inherent 'role' as the protector.

I totally agree with you, and I also have a slightly different take on this. I've had a chance or two to intervene in similar situations. What I find is that if I say something to the guy at the right volume, not only does it startle him and make him stop, but it alerts others who are nearby, and gets them to focus on what is going on. At that point the jerk realizes that its not just me he'll have to deal with. Sometimes being a man means being willing to step into a leadership position if only for a moment.

[injest]

I'd add also, that the very fact he is questioning himself and seeking 'absolution' is because he KNOWS he was not being true to himself as a man.

We can only divorce ourselves so far from what we are born.

A fact that the LBGTEIEIO crowd seems to believe they can change through sheer will.

[Milo]

I'd add also, that the very fact he is questioning himself and seeking 'absolution' is because he KNOWS he was not being true to himself as a man.

Correct. He's saying that he behaved less than manly in the situation, and suggests that part him wanted to do something. Now he feels guilty that he did not act on the initial male impulse

We can only divorce ourselves so far from what we are born.

A fact that the LBGTEIEIO crowd seems to believe they can change through sheer will.

Oddly enough, while I was at work yesterday, I had to help a customer understand some of the benefits of her health plan. The plan is offered to employees (and retirees) of a university located in California. As I was scrolling through the plan details, I stumbled across something I had never seen before on any health plan anywhere. This university offers Transgendered Services. While there was a per day copay for inpatient procedures--less than $300/day, the plan covered outpatient procedures and visits for free.

Yet Viagra was not covered at all. Go figure.

[injest]

Correct. He's saying that he behaved less than manly in the situation, and suggests that part him wanted to do something. Now he feels guilty that he did not act on the initial male impulse

Oddly enough, while I was at work yesterday, I had to help a customer understand some of the benefits of her health plan. The plan is offered to employees (and retirees) of a university located in California. As I was scrolling through the plan details, I stumbled across something I had never seen before on any health plan anywhere. This university offers Transgendered Services. While there was a per day copay for inpatient procedures--less than $300/day, the plan covered outpatient procedures and visits for free.

Yet Viagra was not covered at all. Go figure.

yes, surgery will change the plumbing but their genes will still be xy or xx..whichever they were born with..

I was thinking, though, of the women in the liberal colleges wanting to change pronouns to get away from the mysogynist past. They want each person to choose a pronoun for themselves, NOT based on the genitals...some want to be refered to as 'they' or 'z'..as in "Sheila was alone most of the night and they went to bed early"..