What Makes American Men?

[Martin Hash]

American men experience 3 things in their formative years that have no parallel with American women nor foreigners, which binds them, sets them apart, and defines them:
1. 7th Grade gym is where prepubescent males first dress down in the company of boys 4 years their seniors and no adult supervision. This is where boys become men by learning the pecking order, and the concept of the Alpha male.
2. Snipe hunting is when adults trick naive young boys into searching for pretend night birds, thereby learning to distrust authority
3. And most of all, boys receiving their 1st gun just before High School, and the lectures on responsibility & self-sufficiency that go with it.

Those who receive these coming of age experiences form the backbone of American culture, while those who don't will forever remain clueless in the motivations, actions & expectations of liberty.

[katarn]

1. What public school is 7th through 10th or 11th these days?
2. Never happened to me.
3. That would be nice, but not every family has guns, and they aren't necessary to grow to manhood. Take William Marshal- no guns there.

[Martin Hash]

What experiences made you a "man"?

p.s. I'm from the previous generation.

[TheReal_ND]

The hooker for my sixteenth birthday.

[katarn]

What experiences made you a "man"?

p.s. I'm from the previous generation.

No individual experiences, so far as easily spring to mind, more general movements- like the addition of mental endurance and fortitude (at least attempted and idealized) from high school wrestling, or the ability for contemplative thought.

[boethius]

American men experience 3 things in their formative years that have no parallel with American women nor foreigners, which binds them, sets them apart, and defines them:
1. 7th Grade gym is where prepubescent males first dress down in the company of boys 4 years their seniors and no adult supervision. This is where boys become men by learning the pecking order, and the concept of the Alpha male.
2. Snipe hunting is when adults trick naive young boys into searching for pretend night birds, thereby learning to distrust authority
3. And most of all, boys receiving their 1st gun just before High School, and the lectures on responsibility & self-sufficiency that go with it.

Those who receive these coming of age experiences form the backbone of American culture, while those who don't will forever remain clueless in the motivations, actions & expectations of liberty.

Those things didn't happen to any American man under age 50.

Probably explains a lot about GenX and Millennials.

[DrYouth]

2. Snipe hunting is when adults trick naive young boys into searching for pretend night birds, thereby learning to distrust authority