Let Men Talk

Getting it off their chests about women, sex, religion, the future and themselves.

by Logan Mabe

Has the American male really changed? The success of Robert Bly’s Iron John, a mythological sojourn in quest of man's primitive essence, would indicate so. Sixty-two weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, the book, if nothing else, has spawned au alu10s1 frenzied examination of what itis to be a man in today’s society.

All of a sudden, man is being dissected like a laboratory animal, held up to the light and checked for transparency like a strange visitor from another galaxy. Just about everyone. It seems, has something to say about men. Hardly anyone, however, is listening to them.

After all. this is 'The Year of the Woman. First, Anita Hill spoke up before the Senate. Then voters spoke out at the polls. nominating a record number of women for political office across the nation. At the Democratic National Convention, Texas Gov. Ann Richards and Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski electrified delegates with their fiery oratory. and former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan chastened them with her professorial lecture.

Atlanta Magazine decided to give men another chance to talk. We engaged 100 local men in extensive conversations. We asked them to talk about how manhood today is different from their fathers’ era. We talked about sex and sexuality and about women, spirituality and the future.

It was obvious men thought no one would ever ask.