According to the Sydney Morning Herald there is a new breed of man. He is “chivalrous, but not patriarchal. He is well-groomed without being pretentious or dandy. He’ll open the door for someone – not because they’re female – but because it’s a nice thing to do. He doesn’t mind meeting his mates at the pub, but he has no qualms inquiring about the riesling.” He is the Modern Day Gentleman or MDG for short. A composite of traditional male ruggedness and new age intellectualism that’s epitomized, apparently, by comedian Charlie Pickering. And he is completely fabricated for the purposes of this article.
Here’s the thing. The problem with trend pieces on masculinity, much like trend pieces on hipsters, is this notion that a large group of rational adults willingly subscribe to a singular and static code of conduct. They don’t. And when it comes to trend pieces on masculinity, that margin for error extrapolates to half the fucking population and all we’re left with is vague anecdotal evidence about how the modern man behaves and what it is he stands for. “It means being a little more considered and a little more responsible for who you are and what you do,” Pickering claims of the new Australian male. “It is reclaiming some of the classical idea of what it means to be a man.” What? What does that even mean? Were men less responsible a few years ago?
I remember reading a similar trend piece a few years ago when Don Draper singlehandedly revived the dashing male persona of yore and since then nothing much has changed. In Australia in particular, where notions of maleness are inexorably linked to notions of “blokiness”, this seems particularly unfounded. Who are we to believe? The authentic Aussie blokes in every beer commercial ever or the preening power players in GQ Magazine? Neither of course. They’re the same person, they just exist on opposite ends of the man spectrum. Like every other group of people throughout history there are different sensibilities for different people and to cast a particular set of behaviours/ideologies over the men of Australia is so stupidly futile it’s infuriating. We are united only by the fact that they have a penis, that is all. But this isn’t the first time men have been subjected to sweeping generalizations about their values, dress sense and personal hygiene. At the turn of the century we had the SNAG or Sensitive New Age Guy. A proto-metrosexual who exhibited decidedly un-male levels of emotional sensitivity. Think about how ridiculous that sounds a decade later and that’s what awaits the Modern Day Gentleman if he continues to be perpetuated by the Australian media.
To be an Australian male in 2010 you have to fulfill two prerequisites. You have to be male and you have to be Australian. Nothing more, nothing less. The rest (dating, your job, how many friends you have, respect) will take care of itself and it will have nothing to do with how tight your suit is.
