What makes a REAL MAN?

Metrosexual Jamie Oliver, Sarong-wearing David Beckahm, drinking-and-fighting Liam Gallagher - they're all modern man, but are they 'real' man?

... It was a key moment in my quest to define the concept of manhood... I continue to believe that 'boyishness' is an attractive characteristics in a man, it is important for the human male at some point to recognise that he has indeed become a man. And not a lad.

If I have any fixed views about what constitute a 'real' man, it is one who is connected to the 'real' world. This means someone who has taken on the responsibilities of real life and gains his integrity from them. This sound pompous and dull, but at some age you come to realise that real man are not necessarily the ones who race fast cars, heli-ski on glaciers, or join the SAS.

They are the man who get on with their jobs, try to make their families happy, do their bit for other people occasionally - then wonder vaguely why their lives do not contain much racing, heli-skiing or going behind enemy lines.

The commitment on marriage, to children, to parents, to the wider community, is the antithesis of the lad culture that tries to promote a version of masculinity, which, though superficially attractive, is essentially infantile. It is about refusal not merely to grow old but also to grow up.

I am pretty sure that a real man does not read lads' mags, hang out with the lads, or believe solely in the lads' trinity of frootie, tottie, and beer. I am not suggesting that he has to be celibate, teetotoal and fond on of chess, but I am firmly convinced that the adult male or a real modern metrosexual man can be and should be a more developed creature than this limited representation the media would have you believe in.

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