Two 'Macho' Views Widen the Gender Gap

Thanks to the recent surge of self-help and spiritual renewal literature, humor "writers" now have even more fodder with which to antagonize the "battle of the sexes." A grand favorite of this genre is the "girls rule, boys drool" pseudo-feminist text, as well as the male role-reversal counterpart, in which one gender is blasted incessantly in the hopes that the opposite sex will cry, "It's true!" between shrieks of laughter. Two recent addition to these battle, Macho Meditations: Daily Thoughts and Inspirations for Real Men and The Guys' Guide to Guys' Videos: The First Video Guide with an Attitude,certainly help fuel the fire.

Although at first glance, both books appear more shallow than a drop of testosterone, a closer reading of both proves that they are not without their charm. Both are written in a friendly, "buddy-buddy" style that instigates an "us-against-them" attitude in the reader's mind--not unlike the pro-female books that also saturate the market. An enlightened person may ask, "Can't we reinforce our strength without making the other party look weak?" People like this, however, obviously do not work for the mass media. They may also be from Pluto instead of either Mars or Venus.

The first of the Avon Publishing pair, Macho Meditations, was created by the late-night barstool contemplation of two south Boston residents dubbed "Ralph" and "Reggie." The book itself contains a full year's worth of quotes-a-day and meditations to go with them, ranging from blatantly chauvinistic to intellectually contemplative to just-plain sentimental.

For example, the reader is advised on January 2 to come on to a feminist, but if "she smacks you, tell her you were just kidding, you don't really like the way she fills out her sweater," yet the contemplation for September 29, regarding competitiveness in fatherhood, is "guys are at peace with simply being one face in the crowd of...fathers." The variety of sources quoted is impressive, ranging from Aristotle to Aristotle Onassis, Aesop to Abe Lincoln, Gloria Steinham to Gertrude Stein--even Woody Allen to a fortune cookie.

Overall, Macho Meditations does contain quite a bit of women-bashing, but there is also a surprisingly serious overtone that suggests that women are wonderful creatures that men are trying to understand. But the kicker of the book is the authors themselves--two Harvard grads who concentrated in philosophy and subsequently dropped out of grad school. (And they say you can't amount to anything with a humanities degree these days!) It's easy to write this book off as another ridiculous anti-feminist joke that only makes men as a whole look even dumber. But once you shrug off your sensitivity and look past all the gratuitous sports references, you find real humor, good points, and most importantly, the honest truth--even if it is rendered by two middle-aged Boston townie men.

Scott Meyer's gory masterpiece, The Guys' Guide to Guys' Video, also gleefully picks the "inner child" as the pop-psychology cliche to bash the most. However, Meyer's style of writing lacks the camaraderie that "Ralph" and "Reggie" easily form with the reader. (One can't help but imagine him to be Beavis and Butthead's older and more educated cousin.) He realizes that the key to a good movie guide is critiques of the movies, but oh, what critiques he gives.

First of all, the movies are divided into 23 categories, 15 of which could be combined into the genre of "Action." Each movie has a five-category pictography rating "Violence," "Profanity," "Babes," "Cool Cars" and "Hero Worship." The critiques themselves include segments entitled "Why Guys Love It" and "Honey, You'll Like This Movie..." that supposedly encourage bridging the gender gap--until you read the actual reasons one is supposed to offer his girlfriend or wife.

These reasons range from appealing ("Dolemite: Because these women have empowered themselves economically and physically") to patronizing ("To The Devil--A Daughter: Because if you're scared, you can sit real close to me") to refreshing ("Hot Shots!: Because it parodies all those stupid movies guys watch all the time"). They tout moral values, literature, references to what movie critics have said, personal hygiene, and (usually non-sexual) forms of beauty--unlike the male appeal, which focuses on the childish, "Home Improvement" -esque theory that big men like big guns, big machines, big explosions, and big (and I don't mean tall) women.

While Meyer may not agree with your criteria for what makes a good movie, his book may prove useful if you get stuck with that gov. jock down the hall as your Secret Santa recipient. Few other guides would describe the title character of Patton as "The toughest, most arrogant...(and thus most interesting) son of a bitch;" the flick Pulp Fiction as a movie where "A lot of stuff happens, so pay attention;" and Under Siege as "The Navy...a chance to blow away a lot of bad guys on a really cool big boat." The movie trivia tidbits are pretty interesting, too--mentioning that 2 Live Crew sampled "Me So Horny" from Full Metal Jacket, that Barb Wire was loosely based on Casablanca, or that Goldfinger was the first Bond movie to have merchandise marketed with it makes for good study break conversation.

While The Guys' Guide does share much with Macho Meditations, these two humorous little books are much farther apart than one would think. Both praise the testosterone-filled world of manly men and the obstacles created by the women they love. However, be not fooled--not all guys' lit was created equal. While Meditations subtlely works to bridge the gender gap, The Guys' Guide would rather blow it up on screen. Both books are fraught with humor and attitude. But think about which of their two attitudes you want to subscribe to before you buy either one.