Quite an interesting article posted last Monday, Courtney. I finally have the chance to catch up on this blog here, so sorry for not responding as I wanted to earlier.
Classical manhood is composed of many variables, and Feiler, in "Dominating the Man Cave," an analysis of ESPN, handles two which are particularly relevant to the channel and its fans. Male sports figures are athletic; they sweat; they exert physical strength and an acute knowledge of their own bodies; and they perform them on a level with which female athletes are unable to compete at the awe of many women and weaker men alike.
But off the playing field, men must appear gentlemanly: sophisticated, tempered, and refined. One effective way of doing this is by working on his appearance. For instance, a gentleman's "wardrobe philosophy," as Feiler puts it, suggests he has given great thought to clothing (in many cases a charade for a lack of philosophical acumen in other areas.)
These two variables factor enormously into ESPN's "gameplan." To elevate their status among other men (a bit of Darwinism here), many work in vain at solving this equation, and ESPN is quite telling of this. He asks, "How might I dominate the other guy while still maintaining a sensitivity to more effete pursuits (like fashion and style) and appear desirable to women? " It's a power struggle for having their way with men and women alike, and many sports figures are being pulled apart, drawn and quartered, by these forces. Some critics might feel that ESPN and other media avenues currently popular among men are at the root of this struggle , but an astute historian and critic will point at this classical tradition of manhood, informed by biology, at its source.
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