The time has come for me to reveal myself.
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I am Ripper… Tearer… Slasher… Gouger. I am the Teeth in the Darkness, the Talons in the Night. Mine is Strength… and Lust… and Power! I AM BEOWULF!
I vote that the two greatest scenes of manliness in cinema are the fight between a naked Beowulf and Grendel, and the promise made by Jim Braddock to his first-born son in Cinderella Man that he’ll always put food on the table for his family. Why do I consider these scenes representative of manliness? Because they illustrate the purest and most admirable ideals of the protector and the provider — or, if you want, the alpha and the beta.
In Beowulf, Grendel attacks the town’s gathering house and Beowulf prepares to meet him in mano a mano battle. But Beowulf does something peculiar just before Grendel arrives — he strips naked. He explains he wants to meet the monster on its own terms, without shield or sword to aid him. The symbolism is profound. Besides Beowulf’s insane bravery, the act of stripping away his protective garments and weapons is an act of disdain for his own fear. He’s not just facing a monster; he’s facing his self-doubt. Armor and weapons pay tribute to that fear and doubt in the sense of security those items engender.
The deeper symbolism is the relation of his nakedness to the shucking off of all materialism and cultural adornments — a man cannot be closer to his manhood until he has unburdened himself of superfluous attachments. It’s a disdain not just for his fear, but for anything that acts to safeguard him from realizing the full measure of his manhood. The parallel to modern society could not be more apt. The West’s dizzying array of entertainment distractions, stern ideologies, false politeness, weak-willed conformism, and techno gadgets has created a bubble-like pampered existence that has sapped the manly essence from so many men.
Men need the freedom of their nakedness again.
Where Beowulf is the iconic super alpha protector, Russell Crowe’s Jim Braddock character in Cinderella Man elevates the provider beta side of manhood to respectability. He fights through painful injury so his children can have food on the table and he can pay the heating bills. He loves his wife and is faithful to her when he has opportunities to cheat. But Braddock is not all beta in the sense that it has come to mean today. He’s a boxer and a stoic. His betaness tempers his natural alphaness and that makes the difference. Beta is not respectable unless it is paired with alpha.
Had Braddock been 100% beta, he would have succumbed to the beta’s mortal weakness — the lack of ego, which is the opposite of the alpha’s mortal weakness — too much ego. He would have acceded to his fear and quit boxing, taking up a dull 9 to 5 gig to make ends meet. He would have assented to his wife shipping his kids off to her aunt’s so they could eat because his ego would not have been strong enough to be revolted by the prospect of his wife’s relatives doing the job that he couldn’t do.
Beowulf and Braddock — ambassadors for the dueling forces in every man. In order for these forces to reconcile, beta must be subservient to alpha, and alpha must make room for beta. There can be no other way that doesn’t diminish a man’s soul.
Russell Crowe’s Jim Braddock character in Cinderella Man elevates the provider beta side of manhood to respectability. He fights through painful injury so his children can have food on the table and he can pay the heating bills. He loves his wife and is faithful to her when he has opportunities to cheat.
I like this dimension to your thinking. Well put.
One precondition for Jim Braddock’s acts making sense: a faithful and loving wife.
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Notice also that Braddock’s wife reciprocated his loyalty.
When hit on by her husband’s more powerful and attractive rival, she threw her drink in the super-Alpha’s face and publicly expressed her contempt for him.
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I think you’re making a false dichotomy here.
Providing is NOT inherently a beta characteristic. The alpha cad may be a cultural stereotype, but lots of Alphas also become providers — to make sure their genetic material has a good chance of surviving.
IOW, just because most betas are the provider type doesn’t mean all provider roles are beta.
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“The West’s dizzying array of entertainment distractions, stern ideologies, false politeness, weak-willed conformism, and techno gadgets has created a bubble-like pampered existence that has sapped the manly essence from so many men.”
Goddamn! This is why I come here. You’re killin it.
“In order for these forces to reconcile, beta must be subservient to alpha, and alpha must make room for beta. There can be no other way that doesn’t diminish a man’s soul.”
At long last, the breakthrough. This is the rarified balance, lost to a generation of men either overcompensating for their feminized upbringing or too subservient to women to understand what manhood is really about.
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too bad there is a pic of you on roosh’s facebook profile
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Had Braddock been 100% beta, he would have succumbed to the beta’s mortal weakness — the lack of ego, which is the opposite of the alpha’s mortal weakness — too much ego. He would have acceded to his fear and quit boxing, taking up a dull 9 to 5 gig to make ends meet.
Braddock didn’t quit boxing and get a 9 to 5 job because it simply wasn’t an option. It was the depths of the Great Depression and work was almost nonexistent. His ego, or fears, or Alpha-/Beta-ness, were largely irrelevant.
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Braddock didn’t quit boxing and get a 9 to 5 job because it simply wasn’t an option. It was the depths of the Great Depression and work was almost nonexistent.
Boy is that missing the point.
Braddock made a choice; if he didn’t pick some other example where the man did make a choice to do something difficult and dangerous to provide for his family and use that as your example. Ya know, like crab fisherman, taxi driver or roofer. A movie about a roofer might not be as interesting. George Clooney and Mark Walberg starred in a movie with the same theme about Atlantic fishermen (the Perfect Storm).
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Using this post’s logic, you must of all loved all those naked dudes in 300! 😛
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The deeper symbolism is the relation of his nakedness to the shucking off of all materialism and cultural adornments — a man cannot be closer to his manhood until he has unburdened himself of superfluous attachments.
how far does this extend? are you willing to go full-on thoreau style, live off the land, and become one with nature?
i see your point, but there is a thin line between pure cultural adornments, which you ostensibly eschew, and materialistic things that ease and streamline the daily tedium of life, which you almost certainly don’t.
would you go a year without your cell phone? your stylish clothing? television and movies (which, ironically, are the linchpin of this post)?
you are more embedded in western culture than even you would ever like to acknowledge.
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would you go a year without your cell phone? your stylish clothing? television and movies
I haven’t carried my cell phone with me for months now. My mom always complains that she gets the voice mail when she calls my cell (I call her back on Skype). I can easily go a year without TV, movies or buying stylish clothes. I haven’t done any of that in at least half a year. But never, ever, ever take away my precious computer and Internet. I needs it!
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“too bad there is a pic of you on roosh’s facebook profile”
one of my friends is going to out you to the world!
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That was a great post. Not that you need me to validate you, but every once in a while you really outdo yourself.
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How about the scene in The Wild Bunch where William Holden gathers his gang to go claim their friend Angel from the warlord? All he says is “let’s go”. They all know what he means and nobody hesitates even though they know they won’t make it out alive. You can’t out-macho Peckinpah.
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well done.
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all the devil’s advocacy of comment 9 aside, i must concur with the consensus of the comments posted so far.
this post is an exemplar of what brings me back to this site: truths that should be apparent to anyone with at least 10 brain cells and 25 years of experience metabolizing oxygen and glucose – but presented in a manner so sublime and profound as to produce a sense of enlightenment, even in readers to whom the material content is wholly redundant.
the readers of this august blog may indeed be witnessing the humble* beginnings of the next great american writer.
—
*said of the work, not its author.
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I hadn’t seen that movie, jackass. Now I know the bad guy is made of the inside of a Snickers bar. He could be defeated with some chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream. Scary.
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There’s also at least one picture of Roissy floating around at another of his friends blogs. I’m not in the business of exposing people’s real world identities, but it’s easy enough to find if you really want to.
Not bad looking, sort of average. Smart dresser. First impression, going by picture alone, I’d be inclined to think ‘Beta.’ Weak chin. Pretty, delicately feminine hands.
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No time to read this now, but I loved Cinderella man and have not seen Beowulf…..not my kind of movie. So you’re a slasher, roissy? Sure. If you say so. LOL
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The West’s dizzying array of entertainment distractions…has sapped the manly essence from so many men
LOL. You’re spending a lot of time watching movies, Roissy. Beowulf isn’t actually real, you know. He’s a character in a cartoon.
Good to know you’re keeping alpha masculinity alive by prowling DC bars trying to talk girls into sleeping with you.
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“Good to know you’re keeping alpha masculinity alive by prowling DC bars trying to talk girls into sleeping with you.”
LOL exactly. Roissy is an alpha protecting what, again? His penis with a condom?
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Bang up post, man. Brilliant.
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3 Charleez
You are talking about the rare, endangered, and much sought after alpha beta.
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MQ: I don’t really get your condescending snipes at Roissy’s blog. If you’re gonna play “Mr. more mature than thou” then at least be entertaining like Peter with his “Glorious Natural Pelt” public service announcements.
To be clear, singing the virtues of the Glorious Natural Pelt isn’t a mere public service announcement. It’s a sweet burden and a happy calling, fit for Roissy’s fans as well as his detractors.
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“I am Ripper… Tearer… Slasher… Gouger. I am the Teeth in the Darkness, the Talons in the Night. Mine is Strength… and Lust… and Power! I AM BEOWULF!”
Some people call me Maurice, ’cause I speak to the pompetus of love.
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I’ll have everyone know that Sequoia Redd is a wonderful, wonderful woman.
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25 Peter
Thanks for the link. I’ve never seen one curl like that. I used to live next door to a very hot heterosexual hair dresser who owned his own shop. He had a back room at the shop where he would trim and coif a woman’s bush in whatever shape she wanted. He was always trying to get my best friend and I to go back there for a trim, but the guy was a little intense. LOL So we passed, but I always wondered how his creations turned out because he was the best hair stylist bar none that I’ve ever had.
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this post is an exemplar of what brings me back to this site: truths that should be apparent to anyone with at least 10 brain cells and 25 years of experience metabolizing oxygen and glucose – but presented in a manner so sublime and profound as to produce a sense of enlightenment, even in readers to whom the material content is wholly redundant.
Johnny, are you a writer?
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