Where have all the tough guys gone?

A New York Times feature by Mark Blankenship on Sunday talked about the declining role of the tough guy on the stage. As this blog's name should indicate, I believe that if anything, the American stage needs more tough guys and angry young men. As neutral as the article tried to be, it still welcomed the rise of the emasculated man in America drama. This antipathy towards masculinity has dangerous implications.

Here are some quotes that made me nervous:

“It’s about experiencing his conflicting emotions instead of driving forward to get something, which is what the leading man is usually doing,” Mr. Groff said, noting that Claude is ambivalent about both hippie ideals and the Vietnam War.

Galt MacDermot, “Hair’s” composer, said that when he and James Rado and Gerome Ragni, the librettists and lyricists, wrote the show, they were tired of men always having to be cowboys. “Men are what they are,” he said. “And like anyone else they need the freedom to express that.”

What exactly, are men? Are they just conflicted, wavering, or—dare I say it—complacent? Or are they more assertive, pushy, refusing to concede a point? How has the decline of these values been due to the post-women's lib confusion of this attitude with misogyny and brutishness? That may be an unpopular view of masculinity, and the article vaguely alluded to the "blue state-red state mentality" as part of the fear of approaching true masculinity. But how do conventions get challenged, how does intellectual progress persist, without aggressive, free-thinking males not afraid to take a stance, whether or not it falls out of favor?

Here's a passage that upset me more, regarding the Billy Elliot musical:

Mr. Hall said that Billy embodies the “frustrated creativity” of men who are raised to be tough but that the character is also an economic symbol. In countries like Britain and the United States, he said, products offered to consumers are being made elsewhere. “You’re changing from a society of making things to a more service-oriented and entertainment-oriented society,” he continued. “And that requires skills that are more often thought of as feminine or soft. All the value of being a hard guy means nothing now. Billy’s community has to embrace him, Mr. Hall said, “because the men are going to have to become like Billy if they want to survive.”

What does he mean by becoming like Billy? Is creative expression a method of escaping social injustice? Is it a method of apathy? Does Billy's dancing solve the labor crisis? There are ways of expressing social frustration in a creative manner, and if Billy was a true artist, ballet would be part of the solution rather than simply a means of escaping the problem. However much that has to do with the femininity of his chosen art is irrelevant.

Matt Wolf at The Guardian says this has been the case for over 50 years, and we shouldn't complain anymore. I say the fact we haven't complained is precisely the point.