# what defines a good Man???

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-defines-a-good-man/310486>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 30, 2005, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-defines-a-good-man/310486 "2005-06-30T08:13:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-defines-a-good-man/310486/21 "2005-07-02T16:15:27Z")

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Great man: not stabbing a fallen opponent.  
Good man: stabbing a fallen opponent once.  
Okay man: stabbing him twice.  
I love _Firefly_.

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**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-defines-a-good-man/310486/22 "2005-07-02T17:55:13Z")

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**Stonebrow** :

> [@](#):
>
> To me, a good man is someone that, when the fighting starts, you want to have at your side, win or lose. That’s not to say that physical strength is the virtue I’m thinking of- it’s the sum of a whole lot of intangibles. But I do think that strength in all of its forms is a major component of what we consider manly.

IANITAS (I am not in the Armed Services). Without me specifically asserting that yes there are warrior women (in the Army, Marines, or elsewhere) who are good enough fighters that you’d really really want them at your side, I _would_ assert that, given such a female warrior, we would indeed greatly appreciate her presence fighting at our side, and that it makes her a good woman in all the ways that the same abilities makes a man a good man.

If anything — and this applies to, and undoes, _any_ similar assertion about gender-specific desirability of traits — it would tend to inspire some people to perceive her as an exceptionally _great_ woman precisely because its an ability and area of competence more commonly present in men. Whereas when a male exhibits it, it merely makes of him a reasonably competent man in an area where many men are equivalently competent.

But lest we conclude by that logic that what defines a good Man or a good Woman is excelling at tasks or capabilities to an extent unusual for their gender, note that doing so would inspire some people to object to perceiving such a man as less of a good man than the exceptional female warrior is a good woman, and they would say that it makes no sense to value those traits or accomplishments more in one person than in another.

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