A Guy Thing
By Paul Little

  David Beckham—who’s in Wellington this week—has  just been voted the world’s manliest man.
  Really?
  Among David Beckham’s other achievements—a once quite good  footballer, celebrity husband,  top-notch bread-winner—the visiting sportsman and heavily tattooed grand-stander has recently been voted the world’s manliest man.
  Beckham tops a list of 99 manliest men as voted by the million respondents to a survey conducted by askmen.com.
  To put  this accolade  in context, askmen  is a useful site  if you need a step-by-step guide to doing up a bow tie or tips on business conversation etiquette.  It also  runs  features called “How socks can make or break an outft”.
  The site kept  the voting process brain-dead simple,  for reasons I probably don’t need to go into. The sole criterion was “guys  that you’ve deemed  to be  the best representa-tives of our gender”.
  In  the  final  list, Beckham  is  followed by  the  likes of actor Matt Damon, tennis player Roger Federer and techno-crat Steve Jobs in the top 10, and actor Clive Owen, video-game inventor Shigeru Miyamoto and chef Gordon Ramsay among the next 10.
  You don’t need  to  look at  the askmen  list  for  long  to realise that men nowadays value being famous, rich or good at sport.
Role models once were  artists,  scientists,  explorers, adventurers, philanthropists or political leaders—men who spent  time and effort making  life better for other people. A manly man is someone who will stand up for what is right,speak up when it would be easier to stay silent; keep going when it would be easier to give up. A dependable husband, an active  father, a  loyal  son, a  responsible citizen and a trustworthy friend.
  Part of the problem with the results may be that the sort of men who go  to websites  like  this and vote  in polls  like this are, well,  the sort of men who go  to websites  like  this and vote  in polls  like  this. Creative  thinkers on  issues of masculinity do not fgure highly among their number.
  But that’s only part of the problem. There’s every reason to think the results refect more widespread attitudes. There  is no one on  the  list known primarily  for being a good husband,  father, son, citizen or  friend. But doing a good job of those roles makes life better for the people with whom an average man comes in contact on an average day. And unlike  the ability  to play  football,  the qualities  it requires don’t need a lot of training. There are paragons out there who have them and display them every day. They get my vote.

男人榜样
保罗 •利特尔

    本周正在惠灵顿的大卫 • 贝克汉姆被评选为世界上最有男人魅力的人。真的如此吗？
    大卫 • 贝克汉姆成功扮演着多重角色，比如的足球员、明星丈夫、出色的一家之主。此外，最近这位喜欢纹身、球技了得的运动员还刚刚被评为世界上最有男人魅力的人。

    在这次由一家名为“男性世界网站”发起的网上投票活动中，有上百万名网民进行了投票。而在他们评出的世界上 99 位男性魅力的名人中，贝克汉姆名列榜首。这个男性世界网还是一个很实用的网站，因为它会手把手地教你怎样打领带或告诉你在商业会谈中应当注意的礼节，它还有个专题叫做“袜子如何美化或毁掉你的形象” 。

    网站设定的投票程序非常简单，我甚至都不用去过多思考。这次投票的标准就是“你认为谁是男人中秀的代表” 。

    最终评选结果是，紧随贝克汉姆之后闯入前十名的还有演员马特 • 达蒙、网球明星罗杰 • 费德勒和苹果电脑公司总裁史蒂夫 • 乔布斯。接下来的十位排名中有演员克莱夫• 欧文、电脑游戏开发员宫本茂和厨师戈登 •拉姆齐。

    你只要看一眼男性世界网站列出的名单就会明白，现代社会中成功男士标榜的是名誉、金钱，还有运动才能。

    过去，人们心中的偶像通常是那些为他人做出杰出贡献的艺术家、科学家、探险者、冒险家、慈善家，还有政治。真正的男子汉应当是一个为正义挺身而出的人，一个敢直言不讳的人，一个面对困难永不言败的人。他是可以依靠的好丈夫，热心亲切的好爸爸，孝顺父母的好儿子，富有社会责任感的好公民，还是值得信赖的好朋友。

    产生这个结果的原因也许就在于登陆这个网站并投票的人就是些经常上网还为这类调查投票的普通网民。而那些真正对男子气概这个问题有独到见解的智者在投票中却只占很小的比例。

    但是这也只是问题的一个方面。我们还是有理由相信这个结果确实能反映出社会大众的普遍心理。

    榜单中没有一位仅仅是因为作为好丈夫、好爸爸、好儿子、好公民或是好朋友而被大家熟知的。但是，扮演好这些角色却能让我们与身边人的生活变得更加美好。

    好男人的品质不同于球技，不是训练得来的。生活中每天都有具备美好品质的普通人，他们才是我们学习的榜样，我投他们一票。

——选自《我爱读英文》