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“It Smells like Cock Here”: Warmongering, Masculinity, and Repeating History

October 7, 2024

The title probably sounds entirely ridiculous and out of place, yet there is a connection with the subtitle. Indeed, when it comes to warmongering and masculinity, historical examples abound.

Inspiration behind this post came after I read the excellent nonfiction book The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, by Christopher Clark. Among the many intriguing details, a chapter aptly titled “A Crisis of Masculinity?” proved eye-opening.

So let’s dive deeper into the connection between warmongering and masculinity (here clearly meant as toxic), and see how dangerous it can become to ignore the lessons of history. But first, let’s begin with a hilarious anecdote – which gave the title its name…

Warmongering masculinity. Image of — This car (Museum of Military History, Vienna) is associated with the events that precipitated the Great War. It’s the car where “a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich ’cause he was hungry”. For the more official version, see here

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Man Talk – a Short Story by a Reader

April 26, 2021

Fiction, Society

bigotry, feminism, guest post, LGBT, masculinity, society

Today’s post, “Man Talk”, is a short story (offering fictional truths, I would add) authored by a reader of Home for Fiction, who would like to remain anonymous (their identity is known to me). I would not normally accept a text for publication under these conditions, but the nature of the text and the importance of its message compel me to make an exception.

“I want you to prove you’re a man”; “claim you’re a man”; “if you don’t do this, you’re not macho”; “you look like a faggot”.

Since childhood, a man loses decades of his life proving his masculinity. With friends at school, inside the house, on the street with the girls, in adulthood with the women and the booze friends.

He is tested in every moment. At the club or at the barbecue. On the sidewalk or at the stadium. Being a man is not natural, it is a conditioning. An endless test of intellectual testosterone. An incessant ordeal that begins in infantile fights and does not end with death.

man talk — “Man Talk” is a short story (a fictional truth, in a sense) by an anonymous reader

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