It seems like a ton of bloggers are blasting Kim DuToit's polemic "The Pussification of the Western Male". He knew what kind of reaction this would get so its hard to feel sorry for him. I'll take a crack at giving my reaction to his little missive.

DuToit begins with this rant:

We have become a nation of women.
It wasn't always this way, of course. There was a time when men put their signatures to a document, knowing full well that this single act would result in their execution if captured, and in the forfeiture of their property to the State. Their wives and children would be turned out by the soldiers, and their farms and businesses most probably given to someone who didn't sign the document.
There was a time when men went to their certain death, with expressions like "You all can go to hell. I'm going to Texas." (Davy Crockett, to the House of Representatives, before going to the Alamo.)
There was a time when men went to war, sometimes against their own families, so that other men could be free. And there was a time when men went to war because we recognized evil when we saw it, and knew that it had to be stamped out.
There was even a time when a President of the United States threatened to punch a man in the face and kick him in the balls, because the man had the temerity to say bad things about the President's daughter's singing.
We're not like that anymore.

Well, Kim, I think we've been stamping out our fair share of evil in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its hard to argue that we've lost our national will. Those liberals you're talking about are making the argument that we're TOO aggressive and manly in our foreign policy. I don't happen to think so but we aren't exactly weak sisters either.

Now, men are taught that violence is bad -- that when a thief breaks into your house, or threatens you in the street, that the proper way to deal with this is to "give him what he wants", instead of taking a horsewhip to the rascal or shooting him dead where he stands.

Sometimes "giving him what he wants" is the smart thing to do. Just because you're a man doesn't mean you have to be an idiot and commit suicide when someone has a gun stuck in your face. If someone breaks into my home I'll do everything I can to protect my family and myself. That may involve placating the sicko or bashing his head in with a two-by-four when he turns his back. Whatever works.

In the first instance, what we have to understand is that America is first and foremost, a culture dominated by one figure: Mother. It wasn't always so: there was a time when it was Father who ruled the home, worked at his job, and voted.

You're right that men once dominated the workplace and women stayed home. But doesn't women working have the opposite effect of what you're talking about? Why aren't women writing articles about the "testosteronization" of working women?

From that, we went to this: the Cheerios TV ad.
Now, for those who haven't seen this piece of shit, I'm going to go over it, from memory, because it epitomizes everything I hate about the campaign to pussify men. The scene opens at the morning breakfast table, where the two kids are sitting with Dad at the table, while Mom prepares stuff on the kitchen counter. The dialogue goes something like this:.............

Hey, I remember that commercial! I don't think its gonna win any awards but I don't have the same visceral reaction. The woman is being condescending and it does play to the idea that men are uncivilized brutes until they meet the little lady. The advertiser is hitting the target audience....women. If we guys bought the cereal you'd have commercials made for and target to..men! I'd rather endure the silly commerical and let the women buy the cereal! :)

But that's not what men do, of course. What this guy is going to do is smile ruefully, finish his cereal, and then go and fuck his secretary, who doesn't try to cut his balls off on a daily basis. Then, when the affair is discovered, people are going to rally around the castrating bitch called his wife, and call him all sorts of names. He'll lose custody of his kids, and they will be brought up by our ultimate modern-day figure of sympathy: The Single Mom.
You know what? Some women deserve to be single moms.

Its no secret that men often get screwed over in divorce settlments. In a lot of cases the women get the kids and the husband gets the bills. But this isn't because men are pussies. Its because the courts stereotype men as breadwinners and women as child-rearers. Arguably, men would have to become more "feminized" to have a better chance of being awarded custody.

I think I'm a good parent and I got custody of my kids when I divorced. But there are a lot of things women do exceedlingly well in the parenting department. I think it comes more naturally to the female of the species. We guys have to work harder at it.

Because I have fairly set views on what constitutes right and wrong, I have no difficulty in calling Bill Clinton, for example, a fucking liar and hypocrite.

Gee whiz. Neither do I. Charlie Manson and Susan Smith are murderers. Martina Navritilova is a helluva tennis player. I don't see how stating the obvious advances your argument.

But most of all, I do this website because I love being a man. Amongst other things, I talk about guns, self-defense, politics, beautiful women, sports, warfare, hunting, and power tools -- all the things that being a man entails. All this stuff gives me pleasure.

I like a lot of those things too (especially the beautiful women and politics part). I also enjoy teaching school and working with kids. May not be manly but it pays the bills and gives me a deep sense of satisfaction. A lot of things go into being a man.

Yes, the men are, by and large, slobs. Big fucking deal. Last time I looked, that's normal. Men are slobs, and that only changes when women try to civilize them by marriage. That's the natural order of things.

Thats a little overly broad but largely true. But I don't try turning slobbiness into a male virtue. :)

Which is why women are trying to get dog-fighting and cock-fighting banned -- they'd ban boxing too, if they could -- because it's "mean and cruel". No shit, Shirley. Hell, I don't like the idea of fighting dogs, either, but I don't have a problem with men who do. Dogs and cocks fight. So do men. No wonder we have an affinity for it.

Find me a couple of birds out there in nature that fight with razors attached to their feet after being starved for days and prodded to be mean as hell. Thats not fighting. I love good fried chicken. But watching cock fights is about as exciting as watching paint dry.

Out there, there is a huge number of men who are sick of it. We're sick of being made figures of fun and ridicule; we're sick of having girly-men like journalists, advertising agency execs and movie stars decide on "what is a man"; we're sick of women treating us like children, and we're really fucking sick of girly-men politicians who pander to women by passing an ever-increasing raft of Nanny laws and regulations (the legal equivalent of public-school Ritalin), which prevent us from hunting, racing our cars and motorcycles, smoking, flirting with women at the office, getting into fistfights over women, shooting criminals and doing all the fine things which being a man entails.

No woman can treat you like a child unless you let her. Be a man!

I agree with the nonsensity of a lot of "nanny laws". If people want to go without motorcyle helmets, not wear their seatbelts, smoke, drink, etc. I don't think its the government's business to interfere. But when my daughter joins the workforce I don't think its your right to chase her around the office without her consent. Thats not being a man. Thats being an asshole.

And I want the Real Man President to surround himself with other Real Men, like Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft, and yes, Rice (who is more of a Real Man than those asswipes Colin Powell and Norman Mineta).

Most of our presidents have been "real men". Dwight Eisenhower. Harry Truman. JFK. LBJ. Nixon. Reagan. Ford. Bush Sr. You don't think those guys were men? Most of them fought in World War II.

Ahem. Colin Powell is not an "asswipe". He served his country in the Army for 30 years and rose through the ranks. Do you think pussies became 4 star generals?

I want our literature to become more male, less female. Men shouldn't buy "self-help" books unless the subject matter is car maintenance, golf swing improvement or how to disassemble a fucking Browning BAR. We don't improve ourselves, we improve our stuff.

No problem here buying books to improve "my stuff". But no one has ever twisted my arm and made me buy a "self help" book. I don't think I've ever ready one cover to cover. Don't wanna read em? Don't buy'em!

Speaking of rap music, do you want to know why more White boys buy that crap than Black boys do? You know why rape is such a problem on college campuses? Why binge drinking is a problem among college freshmen?
It's a reaction: a reaction against being pussified. And I understand it, completely. Young males are aggressive, they do fight amongst themselves, they are destructive, and all this does happen for a purpose.

A. I thought young guys were buying rap because they just had poor taste. More Led Zeppelin...less Eminem!
B. Guys are not raping women out of reaction to being "pussified". Guys who rape women ARE pussies. Part of being a man is accepting responsibility for your own actions.

And he won't. Because Rummy's been married to the same woman for fifty years, and he wouldn't toss that away for a quickie. He's a Real Man. No wonder the Euros hate and fear him.
We'd better get more like him, we'd better become more like him, because if we don't, men will become a footnote to history.

Rummy is a helluva guy and a good Secretary of Defense. He may not always be right but you always know where he stands.

There have been all kinds of men who helped make this country what it is. We've had our macho heroes who helped build and defend this country: George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, Black Jack Pershing, Davy Crockett, etc. etc. We owe them a large debt of gratitude.

But we've also had men who may not fit your definition of manly: Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein. They may not have shot a bunch of people, chased a lot of girls, beat up guys in bars or farted excessively in public. But Kim....these guys were men! Men who helped advance us and make this country what it is.

You know what? There will be others like those above...and yes, women too, who will continue to make us great.

Don't be so negative. Have a stiff drink....or two...or maybe a Ritalin :)


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