Thursday, May 22, 2008

How many things do you know how to do?

Does anyone else remember learning in 11th grade Brit Lit (the Beowulf unit) about how epic heroes embody the values of their culture? Now we have lists like these. Sort of a grown-up version of The Dangerous Book for Boys. It's a list from Esquire, so be warned, in some ways it's a little too grown up; it also strikes me as very culturally bound, a list that might be on a website called Stuff White People Want To Be Able To Do. What would a list of things a man should know how to do look like in Africa? In China? Maybe your culture has to lose any self-confidence in manhood before you can self-consciously produce lists like these.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I whole-heartedly agree with #11.