Post by John Allan, from Bridgetowm, Western Australia

You can’t watch the TV or surf the internet these days without coming across the
phrases ‘manosphere’ or ‘toxic masculinity’. The manosphere seems to be mainly
muscle bound knuckledraggers telling you to ‘man up’ while spruiking the latest
protein drink, fitness regime or more alarmingly steroids which make your muscles
bulge while your testes shrink. Toxic masculinity is when these individuals complain
about feminism and want to hark back to the fifties when ‘the little woman’ knew her
place !

We were never like that as teenagers in the seventies were we ?

Us adolescent lads had much more respect for the fairer sex.

Awright doll ?

Howzit goan hen ?

Sexism was rife in the classroom. In the sciences, boys were predominately at the
front and the girls were relegated to the back. While the boys were let loose with
sharp tools in woodwork and metalwork, the girls studied domestic science and
secretarial skills.

I don’t ever remember any ‘transitioning’ kids at school though I’m sure one or two
had to burden that pain alone.

Kenny A and I did have the longest hair in school at one point including the girls.

They preferred feather cuts and perms to our long luscious locks. A right couple of
‘Jessies’ as my dear old dad would say.

There was certainly no love affair with the gym back then with wall bars and
climbing ropes to do yourself some serious damage. I bet you wont see a pommel
horse in today’s swanky gyms.

There was more meat on a butcher’s pencil than on my feeble body in those days (I’ve certainly made up for it now !) so I invested in a ‘Bullworker’. Invented in 1962 by Gert F. Köbel, it’s two handles connected to a telescopic cylinder containing a resistance spring. It was an isometric exercise. Static muscle contractions without joint movement. I diligently performed the twenty or so wall chart exercises for at least …………… a week and a half before it was thrown to the back of my cupboard. I’ve still got it and take it out every decade or so and work on it for at least………….a week and a half until it’s thrown to the back of the workshop along with the tennis, squash and badminton rackets and those must have kitchen appliances that you bought while pissed watching the late night shopping channel.

I’m one of three sons, worked in predominately male industries until my early
twenties before taking up nursing. I quickly found out that ‘mansplaining’ in front of
my mainly female colleagues was not the way to go. Bar the one or two obvious man
haters, I think I preferred working in a traditionally female environment. Certainly
less macho bullshit.

I’ll quote the second verse of the Spencer Davis Group hit, ‘I’m A Man’ to show how
much we were in touch with our feminine side in the late sixties and early seventies.

Well, if I had my choice of matter
I would rather be with cats
All engrossed with mental chatter
Goin’ where our minds are at
And relatin’ to each other
Just how strong our wills can be
I’m resisting all involvement

With each groovy chick we see

I think I prefer the Bonzos,

Five years ago I was a four-stone apology…
Today I am two separate gorillas!