Super Bowl Masculinity Part 3: Take off that Skirt

Commercial #2 is for Flo TV and is entitled "Spineless". Watch it here: http://video.yahoo.com/network/100076996?v=6935017&l=7438495

Outside of this commercial being absolutely hilarious, it is an insightful picture into a dilemma that is inside our Western culture. It is here that I begin to tread carefully not wanting to offend anyone. It is here that I realize the Modernist rise of Feminism will want to take me out back and put me down. It is here that the Post-Modern notion of no truth is better than another comes into play as I begin to make a notion that men and women are equal in everything, but have hard-wired genetic differences in gender issues and roles. We are different and God bless that. A humanity that was full of people who did not: wear matching clothes, put away their underwear, throw away clothes with holes, care about what smells came from or out of their body, care about how much grease or pizza their body ingested, care about doing the dishes, or God forbid, ever write a romantic comedy.

We are different deeper down then at a mere physiological existence level of biology and it goes far beyond the comical, stereotypical notions about manhood versus womanhood that I mentioned above. Interestingly enough, this commercial has two ways that it comments on gender issues/roles.

Firstly, "his girlfriend has removed his spine". Thank you Jim Nantz for uttering that amazing line of dialogue. What does this mean? Well, she has taken charge in the relationship and turned him into a nice, tame, “polite” (to go back to our previous discussion) man. He has been "whipped" and she is now wearing the allegorical pants of the relationship for lack of a better metaphor. While, I would love to sit back here and critique this as the fault of Feminism or women trying to usurp men and be men that would nowhere be near the complete truth (some truth maybe, but only some). To illustrate this notion, none of this would be possible if men did not allow women to remove their spine.

Let me simply state this. This is a cultural insight into how men have become passive and nice, or "polite" to a fault. It has gotten to the point in our culture where the dream of the average American male is to sit at home in his pajamas, eat cheese puffs, play video games, and watch television all day - essentially never growing out of adolescence. It is in this passiveness, in this lack of responsibility, where we have fumbled the football on what it means to be a man and lead a relationship. It is here, that women have thus been forced to rise up and take charge of a relationship and fulfill tasks that men are called to do/be. This is not necisarily because men are incompetent (though many of my brothers may appear to be); it is our nature to be leaders and to be strong. Instead, I argue that culture has allowed men to live in apathy. We can be adolescent into our 20’s – we do not need to grow up. Our culture has forgotten how to transition our boys into manhood and in the process apathy has developed because we no longer know what it means to be a man. It is here we lose our masculinity because no one taught us what it is to be a man so we turn to culture and that is an imperfect representation of manhood (just look with your eyes what it says about being a man). Therefore, our apathy is what creates our “spineless”ness.

 Secondly, Jim Nantz tells Jason to "change out of that skirt". What is he implying with that jab? I have already implied this above, but he is saying that Jason and his girlfriend have switched roles in the relationship; she is wearing the metaphorical pants.

We have a part to play - it is not the fault of women or Feminism. Not only do we need to keep our spine and reject apathy and passivity. Also, many men need to rise up and quote unquote take off that skirt. We need to step back up and lead, not because we want to be on the couch watching football instead of shopping – but because what a woman truly needs (not because they are incompetent) is man who is willing to stand up for what is right and lead a relationship to the point where he is willing to lay down his life for her (just like Jesus) and by doing that we get our spine back and put on the pants.

So, while I would love to pass the blame, it is time we men stand up and admit it is our fault. It is time we get off the couch, put down the remote, put on some pants, and put away the bags of processed food and start being who we were called to be - men who lead. Society sees it with their very own eyes; society is even calling us out on it - just like Dove for Men does. We were created to do certain things, manly things, things that require sacrifice and an adventure of grand purposes.

So I simply ask, men, why are we not living up to it? What has gone wrong? Why are you apathetic? Why are you not leading? Why are you conforming to culture? Why are we not teaching our boys to be men? Why are we not living out Biblical masculinity?