Free Republic

Ladies -- sick of posturing hipsters still living in mom's basement while they role-play their lives away, in between trying to pick up chicks with somebody else's money? You're not alone: Last week, Tomi Lahren, a 23-year-old political commentator for The Blaze, ended her show by raising the following question: “Is it just me, or have men gotten really soft these days?”

Beard baubles are so last year. This year, hirsute hipsters too cool for ugly Christmas sweaters have decided to pay tribute to the spirit of the holidays by glitter-bombing their beards.

For anyone with even a passing interest in gender equality or women’s rights, it’s a relief to see feminism becoming more and more mainstream. No longer solely the domain of crotchety academics who demand we take a lighter to our lingerie, feminism’s makeover for the new millennium has made it as accessible and fun as a Beyoncé single – and it’s everywhere we look. There are feminist boxing classes, feminist baking groups, and, of course, feminist dating websites. Because when we talk about “having it all”, we also want a feminist boyfriend, right?

Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook and the founder of LeanIn.org, says she’s figured out “How Men Can Succeed in the Boardroom and the Bedroom.” That’s the headline of the piece she co-authored with Adam Grant, a Wharton professor, in the New York Times.

The NFL's first openly gay player, Michael Sam, has been named Man of the Year by men's magazine GQ, and celebrated the accolade by planting a kiss on his partner Vito Cammisano. Sam, who was drafted into the St Louis Rams earlier this year, took home the award at a ceremony at West Hollywood's Chateau Marmont last night. Other stars in contention for the prize were Chris Pratt, Steve Carell, Dave Chappelle, Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley.

EARLIER this month, my iPhone vanished. I looked up its location on an app called Find My Friends that my wife and I use, and I had a shock: The app said my phone was in a house 15 miles away, in a neighborhood that I’d never visited. I drove there. It was night. The house looked creepy. My wife stayed in the car, cellphone in hand, ready to summon the cavalry. I walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. Nothing. The lights were on, so I rang again and knocked hard. I spent five minutes ringing the...

Since its first introduction into our lexicon, the definition of the word metrosexual has changed several times. At first it was used to describe young, urban males who were more interested in fashion, grooming and appearance than the traditional masculine male. Sexuality ran the gamut from officially gay, straight or bisexual. Then an article in Salon.com by Mark Simpson narrowed it down to the following: "He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference." In his book Male Impersonators,...

It's the last bastion of women's outerwear that hasn't been appropriated by the more fashionable men out there - until now. High heels are, apparently, de rigueur for men. To the possible chagrin of some more traditional males, those with a fashionable eye and an eccentric sensibility are taking the women's power dressing weapon of choice and making it their own.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a man known for wrestling bears while President Barack Obama is known for wearing mom jeans. “People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil,” Palin said to Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Monday night. “They look at our president as one who wears mom jeans and equivocates and bloviates.”

Are you confused about your gender? You know, man, woman, trans, queer, neutral...and on and on. Well, there's good news for you people who can't seem to make up your minds. Facebook is adding 50 options to identify what gender your are...or, rather, what you see yourself as...or maybe what you think is hip. From Associated Press: "With a click of a cursor, Jay Brown in Cheverly, Md., went from Male to Trans Male. A few states away, Debon Garrigues of Asheville, N.C., switched from Male to Neutral. In San Francisco, Marilyn Roxie, formerly Female, chose three: Androgynous, Transgender and...

On a clear day in Laguna Niguel, California, Anthony Franco and Shawna Stewart stood together at the altar, surrounded by 40 family members and friends. It was a traditional ceremony: The two Colorado natives smiled in a sea of purple and white, Franco’s lilac tie matching the strapless dresses of Stewart’s five bridesmaids. Sunlight bounced off of the round brilliant-cut diamond on her left hand. But one small detail set their ceremony apart from others. When the time came to exchange wedding bands with one another, Franco was already wearing a ring.

George Zimmerman continues to be an attention starved horrible human being. Zimmerman has continued to keep himself in the public eye since being acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin–and now he wants us to know that even he thinks the justice system is a joke. Just a month ago, in between run ins with the police, Zimmerman decided he fancied himself a painter and sold a painting on eBay. It was an American flag, with the words “God One Nation with Liberty and Justice For All.” It sold for $100,099.99. His follow up painting is even more appalling, classless,...

Robert Reece has found that ignoring the Man Code has improved his life enormously. Not only does traditional masculinity oppress women but it also severely restricts the agency of men (a topic, I’ve written about in the past in the context of straight man love and hip-hop), often in simple, taken-for-granted ways. Straight men go to extreme lengths to perform masculinity. They avoid a wide variety of activities that they arbitrarily deem feminine or “gay” without analyzing the detrimental effects of this type of gender policing. Often mundane, seemingly inconsequential activities are heavily policed, inhibiting men’s ability to live freely...

More young men in California rise in pitch at the end of their sentences when talking, new research shows. This process is known as "uptalk" or "valleygirl speak" and has in the past been associated with young females, typically from California or Australia. But now a team says that this way of speaking is becoming more frequent among men.

Soccer is, without a doubt, the world's most popular sport. Football is, without a doubt, America's most popular. Football absolutely dominates in the U.S., but once you leave North America and nobody cares about Brady vs. Manning, or Auburn vs. Alabama. Messi vs. Ronaldo? That's more like it. The new year dawns, like always, with a zillion college bowl games and the NFL playoffs, and the over-saturation of football has us puzzled as to why its popularity so outstrips soccer's in this country. Football's flaws, some unredeemable, are there for all to see: serious injuries, drawn-out replay reviews to interpret...

Conservatives are in a tizzy over a seemingly innocuous Obamacare ad from Organizing for Action featuring a young man in pajamas. He’s “a metrosexual hipster in a plaid onesie” scowled National Review’s Charles Cooke, a “vaguely androgynous, student-glasses-wearing, Williamsburg hipster.” He’s also “carefully ambi-racial.” Pajama boy can’t even fight, Cooke’s colleague, Jim Geraghty, surmises. “My money is on the guy from Big Bang Theory once they throw down in a slap fight,” writes Geraghty, a grown man calling someone else a child as he imagines a fight between two fictional characters. “An insufferable man-child,” writes Rich Lowry at Politico, who...

The part of this week's conservative straw-man is being played, appropriately enough, by a stock photo. "Pajama boy," as the young bespectacled man the Obama administration chose for its latest health care PSA has come to be known, has swiftly become a figure of delighted outrage on the right. He has been the subject of no fewer than three articles in the National Review, plus an essay in Politico Magazine by the National Review's Rich Lowry. Lowry lays out the conservative perception of the stock-photo model he terms an "insufferable-man-child": Pajama Boy is about as threatening as Michael Cera and...

<p>A+E Networks, parent company of A&E, has released the following statement to Variety: “We are extremely disappointed to have read Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ, which are based on his own personal beliefs and are not reflected in the series Duck Dynasty. His personal views in no way reflect those of A+E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community.”</p>

A&E star Phil Robertson made several controversial comments in the latest issue of GQ, on newsstands Dec. 24. When speaking to GQ, the “Duck Dynasty” dad spoke openly about his thoughts on homosexuality and various religious groups. “It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

<p>Have you had to ask Google “Is my husband gay?” recently? If so, a new opinion piece in this weekend’s New York Times by Seth Stephens-Davidovitz says you may be living in a state that’s less tolerant to LGBT people. Also, you’ve probably never seen any television show created by Ryan Murphy (that’s not from the study: that’s just this blogger’s guess).</p>