Thing #71 I Don't Understand About Our Gender Politics

There's a lot more that I could (and someday perhaps will) say on this topic, but in brief: by the standards of the definition of "manliness" implicit in the idea of the fucking Combos people rating the "manliness" of various cities by metrics that apparently involve NASCAR, hunting, particular attitudes about appropriate attire and grooming, and whatever else you want to lump into the standard definition of nonelite American machismo:

I'm going to keep using colons:

How on earth is it remotely manly for a man to be concerned with what other men think about the level of his manliness? And how on earth is it remotely manly for a man to be concerned with judging the manliness of other men?

This is the sort of thing that I completely understand in one sense (our gender politics make no sense and appear primarily designed to make us anxious by dint of trying to live up to unresolvable contradictions, so it's par for the course) and completely don't understand in another, more immediately relevant sense. If some dude actually questioned my manliness (NB: I think this is highly unlikely for a variety of reasons) because of my drink order or my pink tie or my interest in some forms of art and sport vs. other forms of art and sport, my response would be: "Why the fuck do you care? Why are you spending your attention and energy worrying about strange men?"

I mean, really? Worrying about the guyness level of other guys? What, precisely, is it that you're trying to tell me, again?