The Art of Manliness
is a blog dedicated to giving and sharing advice on how to live up to traditional ideals of manliness. It could be summed up as a perpetually evolving manual on how to be a Gentleman and a Scholar.
This site includes examples of the following:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Explored, deconstructed, and ultimately debunked by several articles. The idea that women only want bad boys or "assholes" has a few articles dedicated to such a notion, all of which paint this mindset as thoroughly toxic and self-destructive, calling anyone who seriously believes in such a mindset a loser.
- Badass Bookworm: The site encourages being well-read and intelligent. There are many book reviews, lists, and passages.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: The site promotes wearing suits and looking as fashionable as possible as a Sharp-Dressed Man.
- Cigar Chomper: A number of articles extol the manliness of cigar smoking.
- Cultured Badass: Encouraged. The website promotes masculine values like intelligence (both academic and emotional), as well as advice on how a man can paint himself as a badass, mostly by reading and indulging in culture.
- Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: In addition to cigars, pipe smoking is often praised.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Discouraged. The self-described "Nice Guy" (complete with quotes and CamelCase) is portrayed as a self-hating, passive-aggressive loser who isn't as nice as he thinks he is. There are several articles arguing this point, as well as several more telling such "Nice Guys" how to escape from this mindset.
- Gas Siphoning: The site has a complete step-by-step guide on how to siphon gas from vehicles by sucking with the mouth.
- Genius Bruiser: The site encourages men to train both athletically and intellectually. There's a huge number of articles related to exercise, workouts, and fitness.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: The site has several articles encouraging men to form close, personal friendships with other men and lament that close, modern male friends are often seen in a negative light.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: It gives advice to advance towards that goal, sometimes as satire and sometimes as real advice. But it deconstructs this trope more often than it plays it straight. The website gives advice to men about what it means to be masculine/badass while deflating some of the more immature ideas some have about being manly. For instance, being intellectual, confident, courageous, and respectful are all argued to be badass masculine traits, while machismo and the desire to "conquer" one's enemies is argued to be self-defeating and immature.
- Manly Tears: There is an article detailing when a man should cry and when he shouldn't.
- Men Are Better Than Women: Averted. The site is chock full of advice towards men on how to live up to the traditional masculine ideals of proactiveness, wisdom, personal strength, independence, elegance, and chivalry. At the same time, it doesn't assert the superiority of men over women in any way, explicit or implicit. It should be noted that one of the site's owners and main contributors is a woman.
- Men Are Uncultured: The entire site could be seen as a guide to subvert this trope. Besides being a proper gentleman, it encourages the indulgence of culture.
- Nice Guys Finish Last: Averted. The site promotes honesty, integrity, and proper manners. In a few podcasts and articles, it debunks the notion of the Dogged Nice Guy, who they say is often not nearly as nice as he thinks but is rather passive-aggressive and often too insecure to be honest. This gives the illusion that girls will go for the bad boys. In reality, it's all about confidence; the site argues that a respectable, confident man will almost always succeed.
- Real Men Love Jesus: Downplayed. It is a secular website, but many of the contributors are Christian, so they mention their faith from time to time. Faith is not in and of itself painted as a masculine ideal, but there are a few articles on the subject of faith and manliness all the same.
- Right Way/Wrong Way Pair: Dim and Dash showcase the differences between being a gentleman and being a brute. Dash would always use proper etiquette at the gym, on a date, etc. while Dim was always a doofus to those around him.
- Reconstruction: Of the entire concept of masculinity. The site eschews stereotypically "manly" but negative ideas like being a Dogged Nice Guy, girls liking assholes, aggression and dominance masking insecurity, and more. Instead, the site discusses and favors positive ideals of what a man ought to have, like intelligence, emotional awareness, confidence, and dependability.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Not only does the site encourage this look but gives several tips on how to be one.
- Shaving Is Science: Totally deconstructed and debunked. The problems caused by modern shaving products are discussed and the benefits of traditional single blade safety razors and straight razors are praised.
- Übermensch: Friedrich Nietzsche's life and philosophy are concisely analyzed in a two part series which praises his life-affirming outlook.
- Wine Is Classy: A couple articles provide guides on drinking wine.
