Metro or Meathead?

Will the real men please stand up?

Two months ago I had not even heard the word metrosexual, now I can’t turn on the TV without hearing it. This has begun a great debate about what it means to be an Australian man. Is he the beer-drinking, stubbie-wearing, ocker or is he now the moistur-izing, Chardonnay drinking metro?

There is a certain irony here in that this is about the same time Joe Jackson is touring Australia. In the early 80’s Jackson sung those immortal words “…but now and then we wonder who the real men are.”

In fact, as the feminist movement redefined the role and identity of women throughout the twentieth century, it has also heavily impacted the role and identity of men. But the problem is that while the feminist movement has been quite open (albeit at times confused) about what women should and should not be like, it has rarely said anything about the men and, even more rarely, said anything positive. Frederick Haywood has noticed the way this has expressed itself in the media through what he calls Male Bashing¹. Haywood surveyed 1000 random advertisements to get an idea of how men were portrayed. Here are some of the results:

100% of those that lost a contest were male.
100% of those that were put down without retribution were male.
100% of the objects of rejection were male.
100% of the objects of anger were male.
100% of the objects of violence were male.

All in all men are not portrayed positively by the media.

And then comes along Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The gay community is offering the straight man a positive identity. Since no-one else is offering anything it is no wonder it has been taken up so strongly. But does the Bible offer anything for men? When it comes to the role and identity of men a fair bit, but we will only look at a couple of things.

Mature

1 Corinthians 13:11 compares the ways of the child to the ways of a man. A man is to be mature in his outlook on the world, not like a child. In the next chapter (v20) the KJV puts it as “in understanding be men” (as opposed to immature).

Responsible

Man was made to be responsible especially for his household. Many of the instructions in the Bible are addressed to men. The 10th commandment is about not coveting your neighbour’s wife, not husband! This is why the original sin is called the sin of Adam and not Eve. He was responsible for actions of those in his household. This is not merely for the family. Paul instructs Timothy how to relate to different groups of people as a man (1 Tim 5:1-2). Each time there is work to be done like lifting chairs, doing the washing up, etc. and men are not jumping up eager for work, I think they are denying the way God made them and being disobedient to what God wants them to do. They are not acting responsibly.

Manly

This might seem to be a huge task for us. But then this is why Paul calls on his readers in 1 Corinthians “Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong” (16:13) or as the NASB has it “act like men”. The best translation of the Greek is really “be manly”. To be manly is to do what God wants us to do in taking the responsibility we have been given and stop acting like little kids.

Christ

All these things are found in Christ as the key man. He had the courage to go to the cross for his sheep, those he was responsible for. He took the initiative and lead as a man. As we follow him we are to be like him in this. Would Jesus wear stubbies or linen, drink beer or wine? Would Jesus have been a metro or an ocker? At the end of the day it does not matter. Nor does it for the man of God. What matters is how he lives and relates to others, not what he wears and drinks.

Notes

¹ Male Bashing cited in Biddulph pp34-36.

Pete Hughes

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