The Art of Manliness recently posted 19th century acquaintance cards, or, as I call them in my head, "Flirtation Cards." Look at this example here and then go read the whole thing there.
 |
| This is one of the more amusing and less forward of the bunch. |
I find these amusing; Emily finds them creepy. I have to admit, I would find being given one of these a turn-off (although it would have helped with my perpetual inability to recognize male interest in me), but I definitely laughed while reading them.
If you want something less on the light side, you can enter into our deeper debate: Art of Manliness -- decent resource for men or promoter of problematic gender stereotypes?
I actually stopped reading AoM years back because I felt it propagated not only problematic gender stereotypes, but to me (at the time at least) even deeper and more problematic class stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteAgain, my reading of AoM is about 5 years out of date, but at the time I stopped reading I felt that the author's image of "manliness" and the so-called gentleman all good boys should aspire to become must needs be upper middle class, beginning to border on well off. So many of the gentlemanly pastimes and arts, from finding and purchasing the right leather briefcase, to how to use a straight-blade razor, up to and down from cocktails and martial arts - all of these pursuits require more money than the average middle-and-under class male has access to.
Also, HI FRIEND!!!!
HI, FRIEND!
DeleteThis is an interesting point. I will have to go back and examine AoM with that lens. I have two questions: 1) Do a disproportionate number of articles ask for actions/behaviors that require a man to be well-off? and 2) Does one need to enact all the suggestions in order to be "manly"? (I.e. What is essential and what is accidental?)