The “Things My Wife Makes Me Buy” Web Series is Genius
The internet never ceases to surprise me. I’m continually coming across things on the internet that offer an interesting glimpse into the life of someone else, for better or worse. A few months ago I found a web series on YouTube called “Things My Wife Makes Me Buy,” and it’s interesting in the way rubbernecking...
Buy Staged Manliness with Wilderness Collective
[Edit: Looks like the Wilderness Collective removed my access to embed this video. You can view it here.] Promising “Legendary Adventures for Men,” the Wilderness Collective is a group of guys who plan outings for men, in hopes of reviving the image of men from helpless and weak to the burly and rough image of yore....
Reality TV Does Not Make Us Smarter
Recently, Wired published an article called “Why Reality TV Doesn’t Suck, and May Even Make Us Smarter,” and it was the ultimate in face palm experiences. Look, I am a fan of finding new ways to keep the social sciences relevant in the modern age, but this just went too far, and I think was just...
NBC’s “Guys With Kids” is Terrible
Staying ever vigilant in my attempts to monitor “guy-oriented” pop culture, I thought I would watch the Pilot episode for NBC’s new sitcom, “Guys With Kids.” Within the first minute of the show, I knew I was going to hate it. Yet, I continued on throughout the entire episode, just for the sake of writing...
FX’s Anger Management
So it’s not long after the end of Charlie Sheen’s live tour of…comedy…or whatever you want to call that, and he’s back with his own show. FX decided to capitalize on the whole “winning” thing right out of the box, referencing it within 30 seconds of the start in the series pilot. Needless to say,...
What Happened to Music?
Once upon a time, male-generated pop music was awesome. Not only was it suave and mysterious, it was actually…good. This is a case study contrasting Dean Martin with Justin Bieber. Before I start, let me preface with the realization that Bieber is a really easy target because of the absolute garbage associated with his name....
RIP “Carpe Diem”: The #YOLO Plague
I’ve noticed an increasingly disturbing trend among young kids on Twitter where Horace’s “carpe diem” attitude is slowly moving over to make room for the destructive attitudes behind this #YOLO hashtag (meaning: “you only live once”). Horace (65 BCE – 8 CE) wrote a poem with the first known usage of the term “carpe diem,”...
TLC’s Mama’s Boys of the Bronx
In continuation of reality television’s fascination with Northeastern Italians and overall dopey males, TLC premiered its new series “Mama’s Boys of the Bronx” which follows a handful of men in their late 30’s who are completely reliant on their mothers to function. Everything from finding the toothpaste to finding a spouse is run through their mothers. The...
Old Spice MANta Claus
After recently covering how not to use manliness in advertising, I thought I’d write about an instance in which advertisers can poke fun at ideas of manliness without being utterly ridiculous. Old Spice is by far the best at walking this fine line. You may remember this guy from the wildly popular “the man you wish your...
Dr. Pepper 10 Fails to Appeal to Men
I’m sure you’ve seen this commercial: some guy in the jungle tells you to drink some Dr. Pepper 10 and reminds you that it’s “not for women.” Now, I don’t like to get too sensitive about pop culture’s appeal to the generic male. I do, however, want to point out how badly Dr. Pepper failed...
ABC’s “Man Up” Continues the Trend of Male-Oriented Pilots
The 2011 pilot season offers a third option for male viewers. Along the same lines as “Last Man Standing,” and “How to be a Gentleman,” ABC produced a show about three man-children who have various problems: one can’t get over an old love, one can’t find a way to teach his son how to become...
Pilot Season Continues: ABC’s “Last Man Standing”
For whatever reason, network television channels are churning out multiple new television shows premised on manliness (or lack thereof). Today I had a chance to watch the television veteran Tim Allen star in his new show, “Last Man Standing.” In short, the premise is a man’s man who lives with his wife and three daughters....
