The 'five paths' call up the can-do nostrums of advice literature, despite all the quotations from great books that Newell uses to pad them out. But they remain sententious prescriptions, removed from the perplexities and conflicts of life as men know it. The ideals in themselves are unimpeachable. From The Odyssey to Lincoln to Russell Crowe in 'Gladiator' (a particular favorite), Newell selects examples of men who have traveled what he calls his 'five paths to masculinity': love, courage, pride, family and loyalty to country. There are no actual men or boys in the book, only exemplars negative (Eminem) and positive (JFK), trend-followers (hip-hop is ubiquitous and iniquitous), video-game junkies and 'Fight Club' fans. (Newell's pop-culture frame of reference is a bit out of date.) The 'appalling degeneration' of the 1960s turned manly passion into coarse sexual aggression. Liberals denigrate 'military honor.' Feminists proffer 'purse-toting Alan Aldas' as male role models. Schools and universities fail to teach boys the difference between macho belligerence and virtuous masculinity. Men and boys are unmoored from the prescriptions for manhood that guided and strengthened their forebears. The mild-mannered preaching of Waller Newell's The Code of Man conceals a portrait of contemporary masculinity as grim as any that appears in the most fearsome feminist diatribe. What is masculinity, this changeable thing? Two years later, our man of the moment is the 'metrosexual,' an androgynous, urbane creature who is prepared to mix and match his sexual preference at a moment's notice. 11, the country paused in an anguished moment of reverence for traditional male virtue, for courageous men who died trying to save others. Depending on what story about men dominates the media cycle, 'masculine' nature seems aggressive and violent, valorous and altruistic, sexually voracious or sexually timid, deeply paternal or fundamentally feckless. Today, the evasiveness of gender identity has enveloped the opposite sex. Not so long ago, 'man' seemed the stable point that anchored the changeable, fickle nature of woman. War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity

THE CODE OF MAN: Love, Courage, Pride, Family, Countryīy Waller R. By Reviewed Christine Stansell November 2, 2003

What Is a Man? by Waller R. Newell