Good is Good: Do Anthony Weiner’s Tears Matter?
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Tom Matlack is the former CFO of the Providence Journal and is the founder of The Good Men Project, a non-profit charitable corporation based in Rhode Island and dedicated to helping organizations that provide educational, social, financial, and legal support to men and boys at risk.
It seems funny a guy named Weiner tried to DM an image of his erection to a young woman and mistakenly put it on his public Tweet stream. He panicked, pulled it down and claimed to have been hacked when a conservative blogger got wind of the image of the popular Democratic Congressman.
But it’s not funny. It’s just another in the long line of men behaving badly, squeezed between the news of John Edwards’ indictment and Arnold’s love child. It’s sad. Really Sad. Listening to Weiner, my stomach turned as it’s another red flag of what’s wrong with manhood in America—a continuation of the epidemic of role models behaving horribly and our collective addiction to the story. Wasn’t watching Charlie Sheen enough? Do we need more proof that things are dramatically off track in this country when it comes to any discussion of manhood?
Another in the long line of men behaving badly
Feel free to tune into the Daily Show and all the rest for more fun and games. But for me, this is all connected to the massive explosion of pornography, the persistent inability of men to actually come clean with the truth of what is going on in their lives, and our fascination with the fantasy of perfect women’s bodies and perfectly powerful men. We’re all humanly imperfect, though, aren’t we? How about we start focussing on real women and men who have fallen and gotten back up?
I watched this press conference—just another man crawling around on his knees after the house of cards came crumbling down—and only hoped that they could all get better, that they do what they can to make amends with those they’ve hurt, and that we all come to terms with what is important in this country when it comes to being a man.
For more of Tom's works, as well as other pieces on related topics, go to The Good Men Project Magazine online, here.
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