Got a question for everybody: is there any particular thing you expect a man to do, or be, these days, besides hang around and be another consumer unit? Once upon a time, American men (and Canadians, I guess) modeled themselves on movie cowboys. My father seemed to think a man had to produce something to be worthwhile, which left out a lot of white-collar workers and financial sector professionals, come to think of it. For at least a decade now, men in our culture seem to be required to make $50,000 to $100,000 a year, own a mortgaged home and a car half-paid-for and carry a certain amount of credit card debt, all in order to be a fully qualified person. What definition of manhood, or personhood, do you tend to assume?
Garth Spencer
Vancouver, BC
