“But our culture, at this point, seemingly has no way to express male strength outside of a camouflaged jokiness. The campiest shows on television are Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, Duck Dynasty—all of which feature tough guys wrestling with the forces of nature for the amusement of desk-bound data analysts. They show bearded men doing ludicrously "manly" things, with the manliness firmly kept in quotation marks. And just like the gay characters of the past, who were fonts of wisdom exactly because they were caught up in identity gamesmanship, straight camp figures in comedies offer insights into the workings of the world for the more "normal" characters. Think Barney from How I Met Your Mother. Think Ron Swanson, whose job it is to provide the last-minute life lesson on Parks and Recreation, sometimes while eating steak with Lagavulin. Whenever manliness becomes inflated in serious drama—as in the upcoming sequel to 300 in which the bulging muscles seem CGI-enhanced—it ends up with a slightly comic edge. Figures who embody testosterone as a walking joke are everywhere, an international phenomenon: Charlie Sheen in America, Berlusconi in Italy, Putin in Russia. They're hilariously terrifying or terrifyingly hilarious, depending on what angle you take. Read more: Gentlemen, What the Hell Has Become of Us? - Esquire Follow us: @Esquiremag on Twitter | Esquire on Facebook Visit us at Esquire.com ”
