What Is It About Men

Reading the title of the piece “About Men” by Gretel Ehrlich, I thought to myself: What Is It About Men? That is a goood Amy Winehouse song. Frank is such a great album. But once I reached the body of the essay, I was reminded of another of her songs, a few tracks earlier on the same record. The album’s opener, “Stronger Than Me” came to mind – not for its similarity to Ehrlich’s writing, but rather because of its contrasting sentiment. Ehrlich argues that “Instead of the macho, trigger-happy man our culture has perversely wanted him to be, the cowboy is more apt to be convivial, quirky, and softhearted.” Her piece brings up the manly stereotypes our society assigns to men and disagrees, saying real men are sensitive and compassionate too. Amy’s words express this exact stereotype. She claims that “[her man] should be stronger than [her].” And what is his weakness she is complaining about (because strength can be interpreted in many ways)? Well, his lack of strength consists of putting her in control and needed to be comforted. Amy writes, “All I need is for my man to live up to his role,” even prompting the question, “are you gay?” Clearly, his failure to meet society’s stereotypical mold for a man is the cause of her dissatisfaction. Comparing the two works made me realize that women play a large part in promoting this stereotype. Many women, like Amy, would not think they’d like to date a “ladyboy.” Because of this, men have such great pressure to be macho. I’m not a rancher like Ehrlich, but I’ve come to a decent understanding of teenage, rather than cow, boys (being a high school student and all). From this experience, sure, boys poke fun at each other for doing more stereotypically feminine things; but if said feminine boy gets a girl, it doesn’t really matter. So it’s somewhat ironic that women have the power to imprison men within this tough stereotype – apparently men aren’t that strong.