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April
Testosterone Poisoning
As an expatriate spending much of my time working
in Europe, I am dependent on email as my life-link
with friends and colleagues in the USA. Those of us
with email, of course, have been struggling with
spam for the better part of this year. Mostly, I
would just like to trash it without looking at it.
however, spam filters being imperfect, I am forced
to review the senders and the subject lines to make
sure I don’t through away something personal
or something valuable.
It’s getting to me. Over here it looks like
the US is having an impotence problem. As far as I
can tell, ads for Viagra and longer penises have
now far outstripped any other form of advertising
in our history, due to their sheer quantity. I get
50 to 60 a day. A friend sent me an animated
cartoon of George Bush answering one of these
“want a longer penis” spasm, sent by a
certain Tanya. When he inquired about how to get
one, the answer came back, “Attach Irak!”
In the final frame of the cartoon, Osama Bin Laden
was revealed as the person posing as Tanya at the
computer at the other end.
This may not be far off the mark. Now that the
US occupational security seems faltering, the
urgency to “push” macho solutions on the
scene and impose them on the UN seems to be the
desperate strategy. One of the effects of
“testosterone poisoning,” as a
psychologist friend of mine used to call the need
to always look and act macho, is that the victim
needs to look self-sufficient no matter what it
costs, and he doesn’t know how to ask for
help.
I have often wondered if the fact that USians
don't have other sources of identity that really
count (regional, familial, etc.) makes it
imperative that we erect something or do something
in order to be someone. "Who are you?" is not a
question we ask in the US when we meet new people.
Rather, it is the answer to, "What do you do?" that
gives us substance and title to life. Pity those
who don't do don't have an identity from what they
do. They are low on the salvation chain of the US
civic religion.
Penis power seems to be integral to the national
identity now, with women pictured as desiring it as
much as men. Where is this monomaniacal need coming
from? One of the things that I learned in years of
working with men's groups is that it is insecurity
over one’s masculinity rather than solid
masculinity that is the source of extreme
competition and violence among men. Once men adopt
their fathers and forgive them as well as forgiving
themselves for “dissing” their fathers,
the gentle, creative, caring, and nurturing side of
masculinity can come out of hiding. If I no longer
have to prove that I am male, I can act like a man.
Keeping men insecure about performance, however,
provides a reliable source of belligerence for
political purposes and stocks the military with
rocket-launcher fodder.
Unfortunately, mature masculinity is dearly
lacking from public life. Perhaps given the
obligatory patriotic zeitgeist, those in politics
who might be suspected of having or developing it
seem compelled to hide it. Given the fact that we
are coming up on primaries for next year’s
presidential election, the Democrats are forced to
look, not so much for a platform, but for a
candidate who can actually be elected. This
candidate must be a tall flagpole that men will
vote for. Yes, that is correct, that MEN will vote
for. It is in this light that Wesley Clark is being
drafted as the undeniably male, ex-military answer.
Certainly a general has got to have cojones. Clark
may indeed prove a good bet for the Dems, but it
would be more heartening if the search were
motivated by the desire to get away from the usual
suspects, the lawyers with business connections as
candidates. But, in fact, the hunt is on for
marketable testosterone.
Another indicator of the national hard-on has
been flagged by Nina Bernstein, of the New York
Times. In her September 28 article, “For
Americans It's French Sissies vs. German
He-Men,” she resolved the weird paradox that
we have been sensing lately. Both France and
Germany have taken essentially the same resistant
stance vis-à-vis US foreign policy and US
initiatives or lack of them in the UN Security
Council. Yet, it is plain for all to see that
France gets our full and continuous rancor, while
Germany is treated with mild demurral if there is
any response at all. (Bernstein’s article is
archived at: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40612F838590C7B8EDDA00894DB404482)
Bernstein insists that this paradox results from
the fact that France is seen and treated as a woman
while Germany is seen and treated as a man. An
analysis of the language used toward both by the US
administration and toady journalists confirms this.
Even Colin Powell spoke about his French
counterpart as having a fit of “the
vapors,” that is, on his
“monthlies.” We are all familiar with the
military tradition of picturing the enemy as women
or “pussies” in order to boast our male
courage and to dispatch them.
So women, you are the real enemies of insecure
masculinity after all… Floods of testosterone
poisoning peak when men are least confident about
themselves and need somehow to prove their
existence and their maleness by pulling out a
larger cannon. Male inflation means regression to
roles in which men protect rather than partner with
women. “Dick head,” male hubris, whether
political, domestic, or occupational leads to
isolation, desperation, and ultimately to the
destruction of the deep potential of men as
fathers, lovers, mentors, friends, teachers, and
political beings. Men march to their own
destruction if the only beat they ever hear is in
four-quarter time. Lysistrata, arise!
© 2009, George
Simons
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There are no elements so diverse that they cannot
be joined in the heart of a man. - Jean
Giraudoux
George Simons
is a US specialist in intercultural and gender
communication who hangs out in Mandelieu - la
Napoule, France, as well as in Santa Cruz, CA. In
the 1980’s he was one of the founders of the
Hidden Valley Center for Men and the Cyberguys
network. He is currently the treasurer on the board
of The National Men's Resource Center™. He is
on the faculty of Management Centre Europe, where
he consults on virtual global teamwork. He has
written over a dozen books on culture and gender
including Working
Together: How to Become More Effective
in a Multicultural
Organization and
with Deborah G. Weissman, Men
& Women: Partners at
Work. (Crisp
Foundation) and is the creator of the award-winning
Diversophy® game. www.diversophy.com
or E-Mail.
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