Posted by
Virginia Daddy on Thursday, October 18, 2007 1:14:52 PM
A few folks, Doc Steech
http://drsteech.townhall.com/g/76e89f69-0961-43a9-a768-e4098f6b7e25, and ScarletPimpernell
http://scarletpimpernel.townhall.com/g/41d8ae74-34c1-4b67-88b6-7ba82fa03e2a, recently posted about being men, manly men. Doc gave a list of things men must do to be "men", and Scarlet took the other side, missing arguably the most important game in his teams's history to see a Chinese dance with his wife. He introduced the term "man card". These two ideas gave me the inspiration for this post.
So, What is a man card? How do we earn them? Do we go by Doc's list, or is it something else?
I like the concept of a man card. It first reminds me of the show with Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corola that used to be on Comedy Central. Yeah, the one with girls jumping on trampolines and drinking beer (a former guilty pleasure-- before marriage, of course :) ). That idea of manhood was that men are beer drinking, women loving, oafs. It was funny, and men are funny. With independant, single focused, and get-it-done attitudes, we can be a bit irrational. And with an appreciation of the finer things in life, like cars, planes, farts, balls and the fairer sex, we become yet more irrational. We are funny, men.
As Doc's list mentioned, there are certain things must do or have done, to get their man card. The items on this list are kind of like badges of honor, and men like badges. We like to be honored and recongnized. Also the items on his list are things to do. We men like to do. We like to tinker, to fix. We like to figure it out on our own. Again, this, coupled with our attraction badges makes us do some interesting things. And our appreciation of fine humor, combined with the above two gives us a sense of true sophistication. But, by successfully attaining and completing these tasks, we gain "man cards". The more you have, the better.
And finally, I mentioned our appreciation of the fairer sex. Women are our ultimate badge. To get the good woman is the indeed the best badge. And with the things we do to get the woman, we are often put in a bit of a bind. See, to gain the ultimate badge, or the ultimate "man card", we must all too often give up the others. We must go to the Chinese dance instead of watch Kentucky play USC. We must watch the tear jerker instead of watching flick with all the explosions. We must hold hands, or act cuddly when out in public. Each of these is a man card subtracted for most men.
But for the ladies, such things are often ways to gain "man cards." So, this whole idea of "man cards" just became a little more fun... What the heck are we to do?
The million dollar question: what is a man to do? A man is first and foremost to be a man. We are to stand up and be men. We are to assist and fix and do. We are to appreciate our sense of humor. But we also are to respect, honor, and love that ultimate card. That card needs our attention more than the broken car.
That said, ladies, you have to respect our view of our cards. I think a true woman will, and that a true woman would want a man with many (appropriate) man cards. So, ya'll are not off thehook. If you expect you to be the only card in their pocket, you are cheating him, and yourself. And BrianR, over at Scarlet's had a great idea-- what are chick cards. And I have seen requests for lists for women over at docs... How 'bout it ladies?
Alas... Man cards.