Man Up. Grow Some Balls. You Throw Like a Girl. Real Men Don’t Cry. Nancy. Sissy. Pansy. Who Wears the Pants Anyway?
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hile these phrases are still all too common in our cultural lexicon, our shared definition of what it means to be a man has become more openminded as society reexamines the role of gender and its effect on personal identity. In fact, a recent study by the Cassandra Trend School revealed that 67% of adults agree that gender doesn’t define a person as much as it used to.1 As broad socioeconomic shifts continue to transform the way we measure success, both personally and professionally, in the home and the workplace, and women make progress in closing the pay gap, at least in the strata below the c-suite, responsibilities that were traditionally stigmatized for men have become more accessible. Today, long-held beliefs that men should be the sole breadwinners, providers, and protectors, are giving way to more progressive family dynamics. We’re seeing a growing number of men who are choosing to go against the grain of traditional expectations – 16% of fathers are choosing to be stay-at-home dads.2 For most, it’s not perceived as a default or a weakness, but rather as an aspiration, something to be proud of. While it’s a safe bet that millennials are driving this shift in social norms, we can’t ignore the role that Gen Xers and Boomers have played in priming the pump for change. For generations that were exposed to very different models of manhood, from the Rat Pack to the Brat Pack, the Marlboro Man to the Brawny Man, they still managed to raise a more enlightened cohort of sons and daughters. That begs the question, how does the underlying meaning behind what it means to be a man differ from generation to generation? And is there a common thread that ties them together?
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