# Have the standards of manhood today gone to the dogs? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 23, 2016, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421 "2016-12-23T02:28:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/41 "2016-12-23T04:30:50Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > Oh look, an internet tough guy. I don’t always punch people, but when I do, it’s Chuck Norris and Clint Eastwood. Stay thirsty my friend 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/42 "2016-12-23T05:18:49Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > This guy likes to look at his own dick? What for? His mirror is broken? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/43 "2016-12-23T05:40:06Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > This guy likes to look at his own dick? Not “at.” “For.” ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/44 "2016-12-23T05:43:23Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Back in my day, we were too busy smoking Clint Eastwood movies and splitting logs with our dongs to sit on the internet and type about “men” like a bunch of broads in the steno pool. Hey, no need to think about the past. We can do that today! I’m with an organization, that is free to join 🆒 , whose objective is to throw ones’ dong around and break various stuff. You would really like the spring season as we like to paint pretty colorful flowers on the stuff before we break them. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/45 "2016-12-23T05:50:02Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Hey, no need to think about the past. We can do that today! > > I’m with an organization, that is free to join 🆒 , whose objective is to throw ones’ dong around and break various stuff. You would really like the spring season as we like to paint pretty colorful flowers on the stuff before we break them. And by “on the stuff” you mean… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/46 "2016-12-23T06:01:17Z")
“I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.” ― John Quincy Adams The reward of a successful generation is a decadent one. If your children have to be as hard as you were, you’ve failed in your duties. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/47 "2016-12-23T06:03:36Z")
What’s wrong with bronies? Some of the most admirable people I’ve ever known are Pony fans. Real men sometimes arrange flowers, or write poetry, or read romance novels, or color in coloring books. Stereotyping behavior is detrimental to individual freedom. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/48 "2016-12-23T06:30:05Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > What’s wrong with bronies? Some of the most admirable people I’ve ever known are Pony fans. > > Real men sometimes arrange flowers, or write poetry, or read romance novels, or color in coloring books. Stereotyping behavior is detrimental to individual freedom. Well, I voted I don’t get it and I don’t. Doesn’t mean I think it’s bad. They have the freedom to pursue their hobby and I have the freedom not to get it and I defend everybody’s freedom to play as they choos I will state I’ve met people who do all of the things you mentioned above ( and I have done all of them at one time or another in fact ) but I’ve never met anyone who has volunteered that he’s a bronie. Then again, I’ve never asked anyone if they were. Doubt I could be a bronie though. Ever since when I was a child and my two ponies murdered my sisters young filly I’ve not been a pony person. Those were the two most miserable piece of shit animals I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing. They kinda ruined it for their entire race as far as I’m concerned. It’s like once you’ve seen IT you can’t like clowns any more. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/49 "2016-12-23T06:40:25Z")
“Bronie”? Why “bronie”? ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/50 "2016-12-23T06:46:48Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > “Bronie”? Why “bronie”? Because it’s late and I have no idea how an entirely made up word is properly singularized? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/51 "2016-12-23T07:00:01Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > This might be a little too cynical, but my overall impression is that the standards of manhood in modern day America have dropped to abysmal levels. As a millennial I’m pretty disgusted by what I see passing for hunkie dorie behavior from males, even including Baby Boomers, just plenty of examples off the top of my head: > > 1. Obesity, sure it’s a problem for women too, but in just a few decades we’ve gone from the greatest generation who defeated the Nazis in WWII, to a nation of obese fools who can’t even see their own penises, and would probably get a hernia from having to walk to the mailbox. > > 2. Garbage TV shows marketed for “men” such as “The Man Show” on Spike TV or any garbage show on “Adult Swim” like Aqua Teen Hungerforce- which are basically just TV shows for unpopular freshman high school age kids with mild behavioral problems, not “men” in any sense of the word. > > 3. Equally garbage sitcoms and ‘romantic comedies’ like “The Proposal” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” in which a man acts like a complete spineless worm who’d have rightfully been disowned by his father in any civilized era, and ends up with the "hot chick’ after borderline stalking her once she realizes how “nice” he really is. > > 4. Loser males fawning over celebrity females on TV who without the makeup and editing aren’t really any more attractive than any non-obese woman you’d meet out an about. Not to mention that this is a complete gender-role reversal, since typically it’s women who find someone being of a higher ‘social status’ attractive, not the other way around; if a guy is turned on by the thought of dating a woman who’s more socially ‘powerful’ than him, then that screams unresolved Oedipal complex. Same with the “female teacher sleeps with student” fantasizes that losers drool over today. > > 5. The American male fascination with female breasts modified to abnormally large proportions. Believe it or not, this is a modern thing most popular in America and Japan; ironically countries reputed to have high populations of “momma’s boys”. > > Back in my grandpa’s generation, a woman with curvacious legs was the thing, and ‘boobs’ were no big deal’. The fact that ‘boobs’ are such a thing today also screams “unresolved mommy issues” due to being raised without a father and pussy-whipped by an overbearing mom. Since I speculate that the loser males find unnaturally large breasts “hot” because that’s how the breast looked in their fond memories of sucking their momma’s teat when they were an infant. > > 1. Overweight, whiny momma’s boys who play MMORPGs and beat off to Britney Spears upskirt photos in their mom’s basement all day who sit around hating women and think the reason they aren’t dating a supermodel is because “they aren’t rich”, or that women are just selfish and date jerks instead of “nice guys” like them. > > 2. Bronies, nuff said. > > 3. Idiotic males who spend all their free time hating their job, their boss, their company, etc, living a completely meaningless life > > 4. Poorly dressed guys with no fashion sense who think looking like a bum or registered sex offender is masculine, and that having basic fashion and hygiene sense (such as wiping after using the toilet, and not showing up at a job interview with your Bart Simpson boxers hanging out of your sagging pants) is “gay”. And these choads wonder why it’s those ‘pretty boys’ getting all the women instead of them, when women can smell them from a mile away, and no it’s not the cologne they smell. > > 5. Loser men fawning over and idolizing any skanky, non obese woman as "smokin’ hot’; when obesity has only been an American trend since the 1980s; now the standards are so low that any women who merely “isn’t obese” is automatically fawned over as some kind of beauty queen by the average Joe and receives a negative ego boost. > > Seriously, I’ve met loser, married, 50-year old men with careers fawning over slutty selfies of 19-year old girls taken with their eye-phone on Instagram, like they’re still the nerdy kid in Junior high who couldn’t get over the crush who though he was creepy the whole time. > > When you have 50 year old married ‘men’ with kids fawning over some HS jock’s sloppy seconds and don’t even realize how utterly pathetic they are, it honestly just makes me want to to f-ck these guys’ wives in their beds just to spite them. > > * * * > > Seriously, I’m almost at the point that I hate the male sex, myself excluded of course. Don’t even care about making new male friends at this point, I like women better on the whole because in spite of plenty of degenerate women out there, Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga for example, they haven’t completely gone to the dogs like the average male has. At this point I almost just think of them as sexual competitors, nothing more, and if nothing else am glad that my competition for the fairer sex has become so easy, lol Cool story bro. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/52 "2016-12-23T07:07:09Z")
> [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](#): > > . . . Doubt I could be a bronie though. Ever since when I was a child and my two ponies murdered my sisters young filly I’ve not been a pony person. Those were the two most miserable piece of shit animals I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing. They kinda ruined it for their entire race as far as I’m concerned. . . . That would certainly inspire antipathy! Yikes! (My paw’s hoss once bit my sister on the breast. Left the most amazing bruise. That was a mean, hostile, grumpy, soreheaded cuss. And the horse was no angel either. Ba da dum.) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/53 "2016-12-23T07:08:46Z")
No, I mean what the heck does it mean? How was it formed? I’ve never heard or seen the word before today. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/54 "2016-12-23T07:11:17Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > No, I mean what the heck does it mean? How was it formed? I’ve never heard or seen the word before today. Brony is a fan term for adult men who enjoy the cartoon “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic”. It’s a portmanteau of “bro” and “pony”. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/55 "2016-12-23T07:14:40Z")
Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/56 "2016-12-23T07:16:30Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Brony is a fan term for adult men who enjoy the cartoon “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic”. It’s a portmanteau of “bro” and “pony”. Are female fans called Stonys? ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/57 "2016-12-23T07:29:08Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > This might be a little too cynical, but my overall impression is that the standards of manhood in modern day America have dropped to abysmal levels. As a millennial I’m pretty disgusted by what I see passing for hunkie dorie behavior from males, even including Baby Boomers, just plenty of examples off the top of my head: > > […] > > 1. Equally garbage sitcoms and ‘romantic comedies’ like “The Proposal” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” in which a man acts like a complete spineless worm who’d have rightfully been disowned by his father in any civilized era, and ends up with the "hot chick’ after borderline stalking her once she realizes how “nice” he really is. You’re a millenial who remembers “Everybody Loves Raymond”? That came out when I was learning to walk. Meanwhile, “The Proposal” is a Rom-com. You’re not the target demographic. Women are. > [@](#): > > 1. The American male fascination with female breasts modified to abnormally large proportions. Believe it or not, this is a modern thing most popular in America and Japan; ironically countries reputed to have high populations of “momma’s boys”. I’m being mocked on my manliness by a guy who doesn’t like boobs. _Weird_. > [@](#): > > 1. Bronies, nuff said. What, because I can’t enjoy an interesting, well-written, well-animated TV show without giving up my “man card”? What, exactly, is not manly about enjoying Friendship is Magic? It’s a well-written\*, charming\*, funny\* show with well-rounded characters\*\* featuring interesting plotlines that has a lot more to say about life in modern society than dross like “The Expendables” does. I see no reason to have so many fucking hangups over what it means to “be a man”. You know what makes me a man? I identify as male. That’s it. It’s that simple. What I choose to do with that is entirely my business. I’m no less of a man for watching My Little Pony than you are more of one for whining like a child about how our expectations of what makes a “real man” have changed. Or can you look me in the eye and tell me you’re manlier than [Dusty Rhoades](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNryNfvcQlY)? I don’t think you can. You don’t have the stones. \*Warning: may not apply after season 3. \*\*Warning: may not apply for the feature-length movies Not everything you say is wrong (everyone, men and women alike, should take a little time to deal with their hygiene), but almost none of it has to do with “being a man”, and to the degree it does, it’s a perfect example of the concept of “toxic masculinity”. Of society using “be a man” as a cudgel to force people into line, often in ways that don’t fit them or their lives. I like My Little Pony. It is a good show. I also enjoy Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and Over The Garden Wall. What does this say about me? That I’m “less of a man”? No! It just means I like good cartoons. Does it tell you anything at all about my ability to care for and provide for my family, or _whether that’s even necessary at all_? The worst part about this is, some of this shit is a reasonable critique, but not because it connects to manliness. It’s because smelling and looking like shit makes it hard for other people to be around you, and negatively impacts both your own life and the lives of those around you. It’s not because it makes you “less of a man”. Similarly, being a creepy fuckboy is bad, but not because it makes you less manly, but because you’re creeping people out and need to stop. > [@](#): > > it honestly just makes me want to to f-ck these guys’ wives in their beds just to spite them. Hey, some of them get off on that. And that’s okay too - it also doesn’t make them less of men. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/58 "2016-12-23T07:29:15Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > Oh look, an internet tough guy. I think you meant “an internet standards of manhood guy”. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/59 "2016-12-23T07:30:08Z")
> [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](#): > > Are female fans called Stonys? Pegasisters. Which nobody uses, because it’s long and annoying, and easier to just refer to everyone as bronies. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421/60 "2016-12-23T07:38:35Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Or can you look me in the eye and tell me you’re manlier than [Dusty Rhoades](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmscGWE8YvA)? I don’t think you can. You don’t have the stones. I’ve met [Dusty Rhodes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmscGWE8YvA) several times and he’s manlier than the lot of you even in polka dots. In fact, rumor is he’s the American Dream. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-the-standards-of-manhood-today-gone-to-the-dogs/775421.md?page=4)