Good Man Profiled
BuzzFeed today has a very good long BuzzRead about Thomas Matlack and his Good Men Project, the website he launched in 2010 with the intention of “fostering a national discussion centered around modern manhood and the question, ‘What does it mean to be a good man?’” Theodore Ross had an afternoon of conversation with the 40-something-year-old, and he came away with a fascinating story and a handful of damning asides, such as:
(But not his wife. More than 15 years after their divorce, Matlack still struggles to be charitable about her. He says she’s working toward a Ph.D. in theology, a process he ascribes to a desire “to become some sort of nun.” Despite being “perfectly attractive,” he explains, she hasn’t entered another serious relationship since leaving him. “Too much of a bitch,” he adds, with some glee.)
(“We’re obsessed with Don Draper because he’s us. It’s like this guy is actually falling apart and you can’t see it. And we’re actually falling apart and we can’t see it.”)
(Where do they teach you to pack all of your punches into the parentheticals? Well, here’s one.)
Matlack, like Hugo Schwyzer before him, has publicly announced that he’s stepping away from the bloglight — in part, he says, because of the “virulent strain of feminism that has more or less taken over any discussion of gender anywhere.” Sounds frustrating. But he saved his most damning assessment for his future prospects for himself:
So, he tells me, he will “step back” and “stay out of the limelight.” He will devote his free time to his family, his investments, and his workouts. He will foster his meditation practice — pillow and candle explained — and develop a book idea that he at first didn’t want to discuss but eventually described as “Eat, Pray, Love without going anywhere.”
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Photo via tinker-tailor/flickr.
[BuzzFeed]