Since the species climbed down from the trees, ideals of manhood, always and everywhere, have been bound up with physicality and struggle. Each man has been expected to be a protector—or provider, which amounts to the same thing. He is the defender of all that is sacred and good, the bearer of virile virtues—courage, strength, loyalty. Thus, the soldier protects the nation. The husband protects the wife; the father, his children.
In the end, physicality prevails.
In modern times, the question arises: What are men supposed to protect against? The perils of the ancestral environment probably shaped the human psyche, but today survive mainly as fodder for Hollywood fantasies. Protection against hunger and penury have become the responsibility of the state.
