This week’s addition to the Blogroll is the Art of Manliness blog and associated podcast. Developed by Brett and Kate McKay, the website features daily articles on how to be a man in the twenty-first century. The spectrum and tone of the articles are wide ranging. They cover topics of career, money, wardrobe, relationships, and just about everything else. Some are frankly and self-consciously silly, while others are thought provoking. Today’s article, for example, is a guest essay discussing lessons on courage men can take from the medieval epic Beowulf.
The site is not explicitly Christian, but it certainly draws on the Western tradition in a deep way. Brett McKay describes the genesis of his blog this way: “My idea for the Art of Manliness came about as I was standing in Borders bookstore looking at the men’s magazines. It seemed to me that the content in these magazines were continually going downhill, with more and more articles about sex and how to get six pack abs. Was this all there was to being a man? And as I looked around at the men my age, it seemed to me that many were shirking responsibility and refusing to grow up.”
McKay has done men everywhere a great service by providing a continual stream of reminders of what manliness really is. I encourage everyone with a y chromosome to check out this site. I’m adding it to the Blogroll today.
Agreed. Even though I lack the Y chromosome, I have thoroughly enjoyed the articles my husband forwards to me from the blog. And I would agree that the site, though not explicitly Christian, is entirely compatible with a Christian view of true manliness.