Some males could obsess in regards to the Roman Empire. But what about the remainder of us?

And will the Miami Marlins — my favourite baseball workforce — defy the percentages and win a wild-card spot this season? (I’m taking bets it’s going to occur.)

But discover I didn’t point out something in regards to the Roman Empire. 

If you’re a little bit confused about this Roman enterprise, you’re possible not conscious of this newest viral development. Namely, a dialogue about how males can’t cease desirous about that bygone period when Nero, Augustus and the like dominated the world — or not less than a good portion of it. 

The topic has spawned many a social-media thread. It’s additionally been dissected by the New York Times and Washington Post. 

And naturally, it led to my spouse of 32 years asking me: “So, how often do you think about the Roman Empire?” As if she didn’t already know my actual obsessions? I simply practically prolonged our upcoming Washington, D.C., trip to see a buzzy new manufacturing of “Evita.”

Of course, there’s in all probability some reality to the notion that males are into issues of the traditional Roman state. It actually matches the alpha-male fixation with energy and authority. As in, us guys are only a bunch of wannabe gladiators, searching for our alternative to brandish a weapon and defeat the enemy. 

At the very least, we do know that males have explicit obsessions which are much less more likely to be shared by ladies. We spend extra on electronics and booze. We’re far larger followers {of professional} soccer, which some may argue is simply one other model of the gladiator video games.  

But right here’s the issue: What’s true generally is just not essentially true specifically. And to suppose all males match a sure profile — specifically, the alpha-male profile — is to suppose that masculinity should adhere to a frankly outdated mannequin.

We’re dwelling in an period once we’re always redefining gender roles, if not the very thought of gender itself. Stereotypes could also be rooted in sure realities, however these realities change over time.

Craig Agranoff, a Florida-based advertising guru, instructed me that corporations nonetheless play by a number of the outdated guidelines of what speaks to males, however in addition they know they’ve received to broaden that definition. Or as Agranoff mentioned, “It’s now OK for a man to want to have soft sheets to sleep on.”

The downside with enjoying the gender stereotyping sport is that it limits us all. And in limiting ourselves, we shut doorways to “otherness” at finest and create divisions that trigger actual ache and issues at worst. It’s such stereotyping that arguably results in the gender pay hole that continues to plague the workforce, for instance. 

So, what about my record of obsessions? One may argue that baseball is a “guy” factor. Maybe pizza, too. And Broadway musicals? Perhaps not a lot by conventional requirements, however most of my male pals can discuss theater all day. The level is, we don’t all match neatly into the bins that society suggests. 

Which is why I threw the query again to my spouse: “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” It seems she knew her emperors excess of I did.