So, it seems the men of America are being “whipped” into remission. A new spate of ads have featured men defending different inherent facets of their manliness. Burger King has a new “Manthem” where adult boys proclaim their right to hate salads and quiche and prefer double cheeseburgers. Miller Lite presently has a campaign where men of various background, vocation and celebrity decide on and “write” new “Man Laws” (it seems the viewers are only witness to the beer-related sessions, although one of the new laws–”You poke it, you own it”–invites further interpretative scrutiny). And a recent Applebee’s TV ad has three “meat-loving” guys giving scornful leers at a fourth’s voiced appreciation for a “vegetable medly.”

What has happened that guys feel a sudden need to defend behavior commonly ascribed to their sex for some, um, 65,000 years or so? What is this threat to their manhood and where did it come from?

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