First it was the “He-cession.” Now we have the “Menaissance.”

This piece by a writer at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is just too much. Shitting on those feminine “metrosexuals” to coin the “retrosexual” in what is the new era of the “menaissance,” his word play is as intense as his boner for Don Draper. The Mad Men fan has taken the show’s depiction of masculinity a little too seriously and is claiming that America is following suit and going back to a time where “the man’s man is back”:

Think Don Draper, the dapper, jut-jawed executive played by Jon Hamm in the AMC series “Mad Men.” He may be a philanderer, but you won’t find a pink shirt in his wardrobe. Like the dark hero characters of ex-spy Michael Westen in “Burn Notice” and U.S. Marshal Raylon Givens in “Justified,” “Mad Men” presents alpha males who live unapologetically by their own code.

Regarding the show, I think most fans here would agree that creating a “menaissance” is probably the last thing the writers (who are overwhelming female, by the way) are trying to do, but it’s sad that some people have a tendency to take good analysis on sexism and gender roles and interpret it literally to fit their own wishful misogyny. On the other hand, one thing he does have right is that there is a ton of ridiculous and sexist, manly marketing to fellas — but it’s nothing new.
What is probably the worst part of the piece is a quote by a gender studies professor, who’d we think would come correct against this guy’s obvious intentions, but alas:

Susan Shaprio Barash, who teaches gender studies at Marymount Manhattan College, says the lingering recession has more women yearning for the reliability and stability of a bring-home-the-bacon kind of guy — without the chauvinism.
“Since the downturn, because things are in shambles, women really want manly men,” she says. “Just because there’s this climate of insecurity, women really want strong men. That’s why ‘Mad Men’ is so popular.”

Who is this person and how did they become a gender studies professor? Well, I looked her up and apparently she writes about how all women yearn to be wives. Sigh.
Thanks to MAC for the link.