Thursday, December 18, 2008

Time for some cultural exegesis


Found this full page color add in a local paper. What thoughts come up? What does this say about culture?

What's a Christian's response to it... ?
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2 comments:

Reggie Smith said...

First, let me say that, on a totally worldly note, this is an awesome ad. Seriously. Here's a more high-quality version of the ad. This ad just makes me want to drink whiskey. I hate whiskey. So, it's a successful ad.

On to the critical part. Let's see... What is the ad trying to say? Well, they're saying that people in our generation are metrosexuals and that being a metrosexual isn't manly. And they're saying that our dad's weren't metrosexuals and that they were somehow more manly because of it.

The pictures show a few different things. Men going out fishing: seems to imply that manly men do adventurous things together. Man with woman touching face: manly men get the women. Men leaning against car: manly men are cool and have cool manly friends. Man clipping beard: classic bad-ass/road warrior type image. Men in club: this image is just goofy.

The problem with this ad, from a Christian perspective (really, just from a thoughtful perspective), is that it perpetuates exactly what it's decrying: our culture's complete obsession with image. The reason the metrosexual male has become so popular is because of the image. The reason that there is starting to be a backlash against metrosexuality is because of a competing image.

The problem for the non-Christian, it seems, is that in a materialist (meaning that all there is is material, no supernatural) and naturalist (meaning roughly the same thing) world, why should we care about anything but image? Because in that type of world, there is no ultimate right or wrong. There is no compelling reason to look for meaning aside from image. Of course, you can define that image however you want: manly man, metrosexual, altruist, scholar, etc, but they are all simply images. Even if you don't define yourself simply by what image you're trying to convey, you don't have any power or right to come down on anyone else for thinking that image (whatever image that they want) is what matters most.

So I think that our response has to be that Christ has shown us that reality extends beyond the material and natural world. God has revealed himself to us and has shown us that he is the creator and we are his creation. There is something beyond us and so we must (at the very least) take that into consideration as we develop our worldview.

Anyway, I think we should also make sure that guys know that no matter what image they may fit into, if they are defining themselves by their relationship to Christ (rather than what clothes they wear, etc) then they shouldn't let the world's definition of manly define their view of themselves.

December 21, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Randy Goff said...

I just have to say. The semester must be over because we haven't heard anything this deep from you in a while. When you're highly sophisticated intellect turns it's attention on something, watch out!

I agree totally with your take on the ad. It just shows how we are all looking outside of ourselves to gauge who and what we should be. The wind is currently blowing toward a secular Mark Driscoll manliness. So all the guys drop their body wax bottle and buy a pair of boots.

We should be looking outside of ourselves, too. Just to a different, timeless source.

Incidentally, what could be less cool than Martin or me suddenly growing beards, wearing camo, and driving a muscle car?

December 21, 2008 at 3:04 PM

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