Measure manhood by service, not strength

list and besides, it’d probably be easier at this point to name the men who have not been accused.

Suffice it to say, it seems obvious the problem with men isn’t that they’ve become feminine.

Rather, the problem is what it has always been — that, as men, we too often define manhood by the use of our (usually) superior strength and/or position to take what we want.

Which makes this an opportune moment to reconsider manhood, to ask anew what being a man means — and should mean. With that in mind, a brief story. A few years ago, I chanced to call one of my sons on the phone. He was huffing and grunting, obviously doing something that required great exertion. It turned out he was walking through a blizzard in kneehigh snow on a day when every store was closed, trying to find diapers for his daughter.

I’ve never been more proud of any of my kids than I was of him right then.

It was, I felt, a moment that deftly illustrated a truth about manhood that has gotten lost along the way. Namely, that our (usually) superior strength and position are not an end unto themselves.

Nor are they a license to prey upon those who are less strong or in subordinate positions.

Rather, they are a gift that allows a man more ways to be of service to those around him. By itself it means little that you are bigger or more exalted.

The measure of a man is what you do with those things.

It speaks to their massive failures of imagination and character that so many men can apparently think of nothing better to do with them than cop a feel.

Our boys — and girls — deserve better examples. They deserve to be taught that genuine manhood, authentic manhood, requires no apologies or excuses 20 or 30 years down the line.

You see, Fox “News” has it exactly wrong. Men are not an endangered species.

Real men are another matter.