A distraught reader

It also seems guys have been hiding somewhere, not sure where, but somewhere in a place where they don’t comment on blogs. Come on guys, this is about you!

It may seem at times the writing has been quite hypocritical in that I believe that it is okay to use straighteners, then go on a rant and champion their cause, then go off on one about how I hate wearing pink.

Yes, arguments may have, at times, been unbalanced, but you should respect my opinion, even if you don’t like it, and then leave a comment to debate it. It seems guys were more willing to give me verbal feedback, or text me, or MSN me, or Facebook me… but not comment on the blog!

Anyway, this all sounds a little too serious for the blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have done writing it. So, for one last time, the poll is in… Is Zac Efron the unmanliest guy EVER?

You mop that brow Zefron! It was close, hence the sweating, but you aren't the most unmanly guy... yet

It was close, so we are still searching for the unmanliest guy. Could it be YOU? I’m going to leave the poll up still in the hope that it will change!

Anyway…

Hopefully this blog has proven that you don’t have to be a stereotypical alpha male all the time, doing the unmanly thing doesn’t necessarily make you gay. It just makes you less straight. Ha! Jokes.

I hope you have learnt a few lessons from this, like how to execute a good handshake, Scott and Ryan did, or that it is really okay to listen to music that 12-year-old girls like, such as McFly. There are some valuable life lessons in this for you.

Anyway, no more ramblings, please look around the rest of the site and have a look at older posts!

Thanks again for reading.

Stuart

p.s. This site is top of the 2nd page, or 11th place, in a Google search if you type the word ‘unmanly’. Tidy.

After Moyles has gone, it’s just not worth listening anymore. The incessant repetition of songs that I loathe (Lady Gaga), which is pretty much every song on there, is enough to turn anyone insane.

Anyway, in the afternoon on Edith Bowman’s show, she had Hugh Jackman, star of the X-Men films, as a guest on her show. Now, the bloke seemed charming enough, but one guy text in to say he had developed a ‘man crush’ on him.

I had to go home and do a quick Google search because, as anyone will tell you, I am no film-buff. If it isn’t Hugh Grant, I have trouble putting an actors/actresses name to their face. But did I immediately have a man crush? No. Why not?

Simon Mills wrote an article for The Guardian, describing a man crush as ‘platonic, heterosexual man-on-man adoration’. It seems that it is more to do with idolisation and infatuation without any sexual connotations.

Who is your man crush?

Now, ask fan if they would kiss David Beckham and I’m sure they would because, let’s be honest, he is a demigod. Now, is it because of his looks? No. It is his ability to kick a ball. But my, doesn’t he do it well.

In a recent conversation, a friend of mine said that he would let Peter Crouch do something to him that was rather coarse that I am not sure it can be repeated on this blog, nor on any website aimed at people over 18.

If you are reading this, Mr Unnamed Person, that is so far past a man crush that you should probably consider your sexuality.

Anyway, that aside, over the years it seems that we have learnt from our western-European chums (or enemies, if that is how you feel about them) about affection.

You can read about my views on man kisses in the Q&A section, but it does appear that male affection has led us to man crushes.

No longer are we greeted with a handshake, strong or limp, but with a cuddle, kiss and a grope. And the more we drink, the friendlier we get. We are worse than girls these days. It seems the natural progression from a man-cuddle is then a man-kiss, to a man-grope, ending up at a man crush.

Mike Myers said of Justin Timberlake: ‘You meet Justin and I ask you if it’s not appropriate for me to have a man crush. He is the most talented human being I have ever met.’

It seems that even celebs have celebrity man crushes. Therefore, vis-a-vis, it’s okay to have one yourself. Or maybe not.

Jesus Christ - Number 1 man crush

Many of us joke about it, but in reality, when if it came down to it and Becks was really there on a plate for our taking… we would back out.

I don’t think man crushes are real in heterosexuals, it is just mere idolisation of one seen as superior. So superior, in fact, that Jesus Christ is the number one man crush on www.mancrush.com. Nice beard…

And on a totally separate note…

I would like to end this post by congratulating my brother and sister-in-law on the birth of their second
daughter, Abigail Lewis, on Saturday night. In typical Lewis fashion, she was late.

Still, they were lucky it was a girl as my suggestion of Larry Lamb Lewis for a boy didn’t go down too well. Larry Lamb is a nice guy, and has a great ring to it. Never mind. I will just save it for my first lad! Well, if I don’t develop a man crush and turn gay, that is.

Got a man crush? Why not tell us all about him!

I was greeted not by limp, wet kipper, but in fact by two firm manshakes with added eye contact and smiles. Scott even through in a cheeky wink, just for good measure.

Anyway, handshake improvements all round, well done lads.

Philip The Apprentice Taylor, not to be confused with Phil The Power Taylor

Secondly, moving on to my favourite show of the week, The Apprentice. I was too busy laughing at Ben’s aggressive performance in the boardroom (“Let’s talk about £5 and £700 if you want to talk about idiots”) to notice that Philip wears make-up and straightens his hair.

Adrian Chiles pointed this out for me on The Apprentice: You’re Fired. It takes a brave man to admit this on national telly, whether you consider it unmanly or not. I commend you on your bravery, Phil, but not on the make-up. Maybe I’m just jealous he carries it off better than I did.

Round One - Ryan (Top) vs Scott (Bottom)

And finally, moving on to last night’s shenanigans. After a lovely evening of throwing shapes all across the dance floor, I was looking forward to enjoying my Subway sandwich on the way home in the car.

Unfortunately, my moment with the sandwich was ruined by what can only be described as petty squabbling on the back seat.

I’m not sure what started the debate, but Ryan and Scott, now buoyed by their handshake improvements, went on for half an hour about whether drinking a VK is as manly as drinking a beer.

As it got more heated (I blame the Stella at £1.30 a bottle), I got more involved and somehow accusations were soon running rife of me wearing pink. I can guarantee this has never happened (silly hats don’t count).

However, their squabbling backed-up what my blog is all about. One of them asked the other (I can’t remember which way round it was) why is it considered more manly to drink beer? The other replied that it’s like why boys wear blue and girls wear pink. There is no reasoning, it’s all about society.

I feel that over the past few weeks, this blog has created debates amongst my friends, which is what I set out to achieve. Keep debating guys! I’m sure this isn’t the last I will hear from Scott and Ryan… await round two.

Okay, your hair immaculately groomed with the use of straighteners, your pink shirt is ironed to perfection and you are still high off the feel-good factor from the Hugh Grant film you watched earlier. It’s a good start and you are now ready to greet people.

A textbook handshaker

You clock your first victim, you greet with a simple hello, you give them a smile and then brace yourself for the most important part of the introduction… the handshake.

It’s make or break time, it must be a firm grip. But what if it’s not, what if you go in there with a limp handshake? You’ve pretty much ruined any chance of a prospective friendship/relationship/job. You need to attack people with your hand.

For anyone who has seen Michael McIntyre live, they may realise the concept of this post may not be original – the content of it is though – and for those who haven’t, well, I couldn’t find a YouTube link, so go buy the DVD.

Nobody likes a limp handshake and they hate the limp handshaker more for what may as well be a wet kipper held out to greet you. All they were looking for a manly embrace of the hand.

It makes me shudder when I get limp-shaken. It’s just not nice. So, in the past week since I have been back for the Easter break, I have assessed some of the handshakes received from friends:

A Ryan Walker handshake

Ryan Walker – 2/10 – I got well and truly kippered. There was so much limp in this. Then again, with those scrawny hands without much meat, it’s never going to be a firm hand. Also, grumpy expressions don’t bode well with me.

Scott Wilkins – 5/10 – Could be a better grip as it is a little loose. Again, small hands are not the best for handshakes.

Ross Firth – 7/10 – Not bad. Had this been the first time meeting him, it would have been a good first impression. Needed to be a bit chirpier in the greeting to get a higher mark.

Tom Hayman – 9/10 – It was just a genuinely nice handshake from a genuinely nice guy. Firm, solid, had the whole package with beaming smile and eye-contact. Good work.

If we lived in a world of Tom Hayman’s, the world would be a better place.

I opened it up and was expecting some sort of junk mail telling me I had won a holiday. This was worse… the letter told me I had an audition for the X-Factor on April 12th.

It turns out that after my karaoke session a while back (which we talked about in a previous post), I returned home to find my girlfriend had put a link on my Facebook profile to sign up for the X-Factor. This seemed like a cracking idea at the time.

I think the ulterior motive was so that she could come with an meet Simon Cowell, but we had both lost hope when we thought nothing had come of my application. Turns out we were wrong.

But am I going? No. I will be passing up my opportunity at stardom for a career with my Dad. Sorry world, you just aren’t ready yet.

Let me show you:

Man + Mascara = Manscara
Man + Bikini = Mankini
Men + Leggings = Meggings

Sorry, what? Meggings? Yes, that is right. We’ve all heard of Robin Hood: Men in Tights, but meggings are probably my most shocking finds to date in this Unmanly Blog.

Now, I thought my friend Brad was just throwing words together for a laugh, even google asked me: “Do you mean leggings?“

Scrolling down, though, I did find results for meggings. Quite a few in fact. And quite a few mentions of that modern day metrosexual/reformed sex addict Russell Brand. All of a sudden, everything started to make sense.

For anyone who has seen Russell Brand do stand-up, it’s vulgar, smutty and a bit airy-fairy. He floats around the stage like a ballerina, throwing in a little skip here, a lunge there. But doing this in jeans would be a restricting task and probably take away from the camp persona.

Perhaps this is how he has become such a hit with the ladies and I am wrong to mock meggings. Perhaps the tightness shows off his ‘chap’ in such an alluring way that women love him. Perhaps meggings are the stockings of the male world.

Who knows, I for one certainly don’t see this catching on.

The majority of comments have been from women when I am trying to spark a serious debate about lad culture.

So, come on lads, have a read and leave me a comment!

Thanks

Scary? Not really. Most of them turn out to be all mouth and no trousers and the only frightening thing about this experience is the pink polo shirts they had all donned. Their matching clothing and angry stance makes them look like a female rugby team… but worse.

The pink ‘craze’ started a few years back, and while it is dying out (thank goodness!), blokes always found something appealing about wearing pink clothing.

My girlfriend tried to get me wearing pink a few years back but I managed to hold my ground and refrained from climbing aboard that bandwagon.

You will never catch me wearing pink (except one photo from a birthday floating around where I was made to wear a pink hat, much to the amusement of Ross who had to take a photo of the momentus occassion). The simple fact is, I just don’t like the colour. But why do guys wear pink?

Perhaps men thought it showed their feminine side? Maybe it was a bold statement to say they were comfortable with their sexuality? Or it was possibly all an act of attention seeking.

“LOOK AT ME. I’M DIFFERENT ‘COS I’M WEARING PINK!”

For me, men wearing pink clothing always makes me think of chavs, and there is nothing alluring about that.

However, it has been said many a time before, real men wear pink. Sorry? Real men wear pink? What’s wrong with blue?

Man + Handkerchief = Mankerchief?

Here is an extract from a mens fashion website - “If you’re still not convinced how great pink is, women love pink and are more likely to give you a second glance.”

There you go, that’s the money-shot. Women give you a second glance because wearing pink apparently makes you more attractive.

Here’s another little extract – “A man who wears pink exudes confidence, yet is sensitive.”

Well, bugger me. It also has the powers to change personality traits as well. Perhaps this is where many guys have been going wrong and we should all glam ourselves up in pink clothing, but remember to take a handkerchief for those teary, senstive moments.

Rubbish. There is nothing sensitive about pink clothing. A chav in a pink Hackett polo shirt will prove this point for you.

The unmanliest of men?

beck. says:
get to london. the most unmanliest man is at his movie premier.
beck. says:
zefron. high school musical & hairspray extraordinaire.
stui says:
haha!!!!
beck. says:
i swear if i had even £5 i’d be there at that premier.
stui says:
why’s that?
beck. says:
because I love him and his ridiculous gay-face
beck. says:
i mean he goes to tanning beds for christs sake.
beck. says:
moisturises etc. apparently it takes him longer than his missus to get ready too.

So is Zac Efron the unmanliest man in the world? Debate this please, and vote in the poll located on the sidebar.

And the results of the last poll concluded that…

Men should NOT cry at films.

It was close but 54% of you thought not to just edge it.