What makes a 'real man'?

[skirtyscot]

Colours on the telly were a bugbear of my father's too. He was a TV transmitter engineer, so of course he was interested in the output to check his own work! Faces are the best things to look at to get it right, he said, and sure enough, you do see an awful lot of red faces on pub TVs. Too much red and too much contrast!

Also snowy pictures from poorly adjusted aerials drove him to distraction.

[Lawrence de Grande]

In my humble opinion, part of being a "real man" is the conscious decision to set your own standards in every aspect of your own life rather than blindly adhering to what society dictates and that incudes how you decide to dress yourself.

[Caultron]

Generally, I find that people who talk about being a, "real man," are using it to define and defend their own personal standards.

Like, someone will ask, "Why did you do that?" or, "Why didn't you do that?" and they'll say, "It's what a Real Man would've done," after which everyone nods their heads gravely.

So the definition really depends on each person's personal standards.

[JohnH]

Having lived in two or three different countries, I have often noticed that speech that is accepted as masculine in one place is barely acceptable in others. Think of the double bass tones of many Northamerican men (you can't get any more male than that!) compared with the tenor voices heard in many parts of Europe. British voices tend to be pitched higher than French ones, whereas German voices tend to be lower, though all are higher than American ones. In Spain, I have been stuck by the way men can send their voices way up high in ordinary speech, while women often go as low as if they have permanently sore throats.
Martin

Interesting. My speaking (and singing) voice is a lot deeper than the typical North American man. So If I went to the UK I would really stick out like a sore thumb - the pitch of my voice and my sort of Texan accent. When I wake up in the middle of the night my speaking voice can be a C below the bass staff (around 65 Hz) This is in spite of having the body curves that are well suited to dresses.

As far as being a "real man" I could not care any less about that for me.

John

[janrok]

65 Hz????
What did you do; swallow a subwoofer?
How low can you go....
Jan.

[JohnH]

That's funny! In a choral setting I have gone down to 58 Hz (Bb below the bass staff) although routinely I go down to the 65 Hz (C below the bass staff). Sometimes when I take a shower in the morning I can go down to 49 Hz (G below the bass staff).

More commonly in the day my speaking voice is around 80 - 100 Hz.

And just think - when I was a boy I had a high soprano voice and my mother was worried I would grow up to be a man with a effeminate voice.

Added section: Hispanic men in the Dallas, TX, USA area speak in a tenor range, not like that of an Anglo man. When I step into a carniceria to buy fajita and tablita and I speak I stick out like a sore thumb when I talk with my deep voice.

John