I think it's potentially a very interesting area to study. How positive/important is it to be masculine? Traditional masculine values have been problematic.
I'd like to start from a slightly different place.
"A man is what a man does" is a strong ethic. We can see it everywhere from the 60,000 year-old cultures of indigenous Australia to the modern board-room. So strong is it that I'd like to write it this way: "a man is what a man DOES." The DOING -- its outputs and accomplishments are all that society values a man for. Our studies of masculinity (such as they are) spend a lot of time deciding and revising what a man should DO and virtually ignoring who a man is while he's DOING it. In fact a man may see himself only in terms of what he DOES and for the whole of his life have no idea who he really is.
"What is a man" is a question feminism has naturally concerned itself with, along with "what
ought he to be", but I believe feminism can answer neither. If anything, feminism is perpetuating the subordination of masculine being to DOING and thus propagating many of the problems plaguing masculine identity. I see metrosexuality as an example of this.
For if feminism has rightly concerned itself with turning
being a woman into equitable opportunity, I think masculinism (if it ever gets off the ground) needs to address the problem that men have been so busy DOING that many live and die without discovering who they are at all.
I came to a realisation a few weeks ago 'patriarchal' structures were created to support a certain economic structure.
Yes, agreed, GA. Lots of species specialise roles to increase productivity, and some roles come with more economic power than others. It ain't fair, but it's how nature rolls. Fortunately, other than specialisation in gestation we're able to choose things however we collectively want.
I'm a mature student, and I think the younger students mistakenly see 'patriarchy' as some kind of 'bogeyman.' They seemed genuinely shocked at the thought that women can be just as guilty for restricting other women - men too.
Yes, and in a similar vein, what is a model for a healthy masculine / masculine relationship, and how was it derived?
My answer: there isn't one. Most men have no model for friendship outside of DOING together. They either DO together in the workplace, DO at home, or watch other men DO in sport. If you'd like to see some loneliness, look at what happens to men's relationships once the shared DOING is past.
So to answer Lady Ice's questions directly: I would study men trapped in situations of pre DOING, post DOING, can't DO and not DOING and see what's left, what's missing. I think that
Waiting for Godot, Death of a Saleseman and
Catch-22 might be more significant than Hemingway or Lawrence.
). Moreover, Hemingway was a member of "The Lost Generation" and his writing often showed that. There's a breakdown in the gung-ho pro patria mori thinking in some of his writing, then in other parts he seems to still want to believe. And a lot of his writing bespeaks great emotional impotence. I think he captures something of the growing awareness of the problem, but I'm not sure that he has anything to say about what caused it, or what might fix it. 
