As voters, we are often exposed to politicians who endorse both sides of a contentious issue. Their thinking, presumably, is that if they support nothing, then it is precisely nothing that comes back to haunt them after they are elected. Otherwise known as not painting oneself into a corner, this time-honored political maneuver has never translated well to business, where fortunes are more often lost than won if company executives are compulsive ditherers.

So it seems weird to me that Maxim Magazine, the glossy young-adult male bastion of beer, boobs and basketball, should devise its "Mantropy" promotional campaign (www.mantropy.com) with the expectation that not a one of Maxim's readers might notice the double standard it sets.

For those of you who aren't in the know, Mantropy is, according to Maxim, a "disease" that kills men from the inside out by turning them into women. The symptoms of Mantropy include ownership of small dogs (under 8.7 kilos), buffed fingernails, "Fauxhawks," lightly tinted glasses, man purses, fruit smoothies, and any two-wheeled mode of personal transportation that does not exceed 500 cubic centimeters in engine displacement.

Maxim goes on to urge men (by definition: "real" men) to report outbreaks of Mantropy wherever they occur, typically by dropping a dime on anyone who doesn't subscribe to the pull-my-finger brand of masculine behavior.

Metrosexual Backlash
The astute marketer knows or at least suspects that Maxim is trying to tap into the so-called "metrosexual backlash" occurring in America these days. This backlash comes in the form of market research, specifically the Leo Burnett Man Study, that shows both men and women are being turned off by images of well-groomed, feminine-looking guys in contemporary fashion advertising.

(Feminine-looking men in fashion advertising. Who would have thought?)

Man Study respondents believe that such images are out of touch with reality, and most say they prefer a return to the days when precancerous Marlboro Men swaggered the landscape.

And so we have Mantropy: the advertising campaign, the website, the tee shirt, the peel-and-stick hazard sign. From the magazine that offers its own privately labeled brand of men's home hair coloring products. From the magazine whose pages offer up soft-porn advertising images of fruit smoothie blenders, manicure sets, lightly tinted sunglasses, and tubes of alcohol-free hair gel with hydrolyzed wheat protein. From the magazine whose manager of brand development, Barry Pincus, went on record as saying, "Guys are more conscious of their appearance…It's really a sign of maturity to some degree. Guys are more willing to experiment, more willing to take some risks, in a more casual way."*

Whatever.

Modern Man, Antiquated Self-image
I grew up an art-loving, book-reading, music-playing heterosexual male in a small rural town whose only exports were gravel, corn and liquid pig manure. So I know first-hand the kind of prejudice Maxim attempts to harness with Mantropy.

It's very easy to stoop to the lowest common denominator, point a finger and snort at someone whose taste runs to a few of the finer things in life. What’s not so easy is to promote a view of modern men that doesn’t engage puerile stereotypes, whether of classic metrosexual fops or of slobbering sports fetishists with bottomless sexual appetites.

Men are more than the sum of a single anatomical part. Today's man is in the midst of his own unique sexual revolution. We're not burning our jockstraps in defiance of the roles we've been socialized since birth to accept. Ours is an internal rebellion against a masculine self-image so antiquated, it's easier to throw it out than to fix it.

For Maxim to spread its Mantropy message on the one hand and, with the other, accept advertising dollars for the products it decries – well, I don't think we need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows at publication headquarters.

Mantropy.com offers downloadable "Mantropy Control Signs" that warn others against an outbreak of the disease, and which we are urged to adhere wherever we see Mantropy occurring.

I recommend instead that we keep our wallets locked wherever we see corporate hypocrisy occurring. Maxim Magazine seems the most logical place to start.

*(“You've Come a Long Way, Buddy – Health and Beauty Aids Producers Are Focusing More on Male Customers,” American Demographics: March 1, 2003).