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Alpha is the new black
Where had all the cowboys gone: In a post-metrosexual world, the re-emergence of old school masculinity as desirable asset
By Sean Quast
These are rough times and, therefore, it’s all right for our rough men to come back and save us from early ’00s oversensitivity.
Ever wonder what happened to the man’s man?
Throughout the past 10 years he seemed to have been buried in the clean-shaven, good-smelling, fuchsia-appreciating, Paul Mitchell-aficionado persona of the metrosexual — a form developed by five queer guys in order to make semi-well-off couples in New York get along better.
For years I tried to figure out what or who women wanted me to be. I would talk to friends, read my roommate’s girly magazines, all in the hopes of getting some girls’ attention.
Did these women want me to be well groomed? How about having dyed hair, did that help? No, wait — I know what they wanted. Well, at least what all the magazines said women wanted: a sensitive man.
And for some reason everyone on the planet thought that rough-looking cowboys couldn’t be sensitive, or hyper sensitive. Men were supposed to turn into these fragile little porcelain kitty-cats that sit in grandma’s glass menagerie with labels that say “fragile — handle with care,” in order to gain a woman’s favor.
So our rugged men went into hiding. Goodbye all Mr. T’s, all Grizzly Adams, all dirty grunge-rock boys.
Tell me how often you saw a man with a full beard in the late ’90s or the early ’00s. Not that often. Yes, maybe there were some men with beards up in Alaska or Montana, but not out of fashion statement preoccupations, just practical necessity.
Then, about a year ago, something started to shift. I, as a long-time supporter of a full beard, began to see more and more beards surface everywhere. While taking a Gender in the Media class, I came upon numerous articles asking women “where have all the cowboys gone,” literally? I new the dam that held back the masculine men was about to break.
Well, it’s broken now. The new trend is for men to look more rugged and adventurous, even if it takes them 45 minutes to conjure up their scruffiness. Just look at the movie, TV and sports heroes, they all come with fussy face and a kung-fu grip.
Even gay guys are dropping the hair dryer and picking up a cowboy hat lately. The Marlboro Man archetype is stronger than ever. It is just that he is in love with another man.
Some people say that these are rough times and therefore it’s all right for our rough men to come back and save us from early ’00s oversensitivity. All the John Wayne and Clint Eastwood tough guys are back, waiting to save a small boomtown from a gang or looters.
It is not just the aesthetic reiteration of masculinity — the beard — that has come back, it is the attitude too. It is all about how macho you are and what you can do with your machismo. But this is a different kind of machismo, not the women-diminishing, beer-guzzling, intolerant kind that used to be associated with being macho.
The “new macho” manages to be aesthetically rough and dangerous, socially savvy and yet intimately refined.
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