Political correctness

"Is it wrong to perpetuate the stereotype that a real man should be morally courageous and dutiful?"

It is if it suggests that real women should be any less morally courageous and dutiful than real men.

I think people should be morally courageous and dutiful. Which, yes, means men should be morally courageous and dutiful, as men are a subset of people. But if you say simply "men should be morally courageous and dutiful" and leave it at that, you subtly imply that women have a lesser obligation than men to be morally courageous and dutiful.

Howzabout "buck up"?

i never really thought of it in that manner: "man up" for me always meant "get tough",regardless of gender. Purdue shouts "boiler up"; perhaps this can be the new phrase!

How about harden up? In Australia a common term, and particularly useful in the Chopper Reed video (available on youtube) with the title "Harden the F$%# Up".

Although I'm sure "man up" is usually used to convince young men to do something reckless or stupid, in the right context it can mean "be brave," "do what's right", and "fulfill your responsibilities." My 24-year-old, pot-smoking, DUI-collecting, at-mom's-house-living brother-in-law could benefit from having his manhood insulted (though not by me...he's quite a bit larger than I am).

Is it wrong to perpetuate the stereotype that a real man should be morally courageous and dutiful? I think that there are millions more women who wish their man would "man up" than women who are offended by the phrase.

We used to say it was time to 'open a can-o-man'...(can of man) when courage, nuts, balls, determination etc was required.

..but I suppose that's no better really.

If "man up" is used to mostly towards youths, then how about "grow up!" ?

JGradus: Haha, I don't mind being wrong, it happens.

@ Jer_X

Damn it, when it rhetoric trumps arguments, I just can't argue against those words.

You're still wrong though

How about simply: "Face up!", or "Be real!", said in a certain required tone. Wouldn't that bypass the gender thing altogether? Man or woman, it takes guts to be real and face up. Unfortunately, there is nothing inventive in either phrase.

As a woman, I think it's fine to tell another woman (without irony) to "man up". It clearly implies that the situation calls for masculinity rather than femininity...but whoever said that a woman couldn't take on a masculine trait? "Man up" only becomes offensive if you make the ideological leap that only men can be masculine, so only men can "be tough, upstanding and responsible" (not that masculinity is always a good thing - Rodriquez's injured thumb is a nice example of inappropriate machismo).

Our language is littered with associations between bravery and maleness (and specifically male virility). But such is the his(her)story of the language. We don't need to scrap masculine phrases altogether to make them gender neutral, especially if they provide a convenient, albeit colorful, way of communicating an idea. After all, if you allow that a woman can have cajones (figuratively), does it weaken the connotation to apply the phrase to a woman? I don't think so.

It is hardly the first time this sort of quasi-sexist expression has surfaced. Perhaps Johnson is not old enough to remember when the following cogent analysis was offered on British politics: "Maggie Thatcher has more balls than all the rest of them put together." The fact that is was objective nonsense didn't keep everyone who heard it from understanding exactly what was meant.

Dear Johnson, I feel you've spent too much time in surrealism 101: the phrase has its thrust and can be depended on to deliver regardless of the sex of the person in question. I've heard girls referred to themselves in terminology such as "OK Guys; it's showtime" [or "time to rock&roll"] so, man up, stick with it and to your (my) guns. I live in Caracas; the very idea that grown ups are concerned about what in anyone's book has to be a triviality seems, well, surreal. Get to something serious, such as my concern that the verb 'persuade' has been ceding irrecoverable territory to 'convince' for years and no charlie's doing a damn thing!!

I think this phrase has taken root not because of persistent chauvinism, but because young men aren't confident about what it means to "be a man" these days. We have countless portrayals of heroes from times gone by in popular culture. Knights from the middle ages or cowboys from the wild west were "real men." They fought, drank, wenched, but we don't do any of that these days. Saying "man up" is just a way to peer pressure someone to emulate these stereotypes of masculinity (usually do something stupid) for a few minutes before we go back to our cubicle and drink some latte.

An unfortunate rhyming cousin?

That's tough.

Scott: If you get offended by being told to be a man, I can't help you. Thats a problem with your self esteem or self image. My words can't make you uncomfortable unless you are uncomfortable hearing them.

Personally I'm confident enough that if someone tells me to man up and do something I don't want to do, like skydiving, then I just don't do it. I don't feel like less of a man. I realize everyone is different and everyone has differing degrees of 'essential manliness', women included. Nurses during the war saw more blood, guts, and death then I could likely take. They didn't have to have their hands held, they just manned up and did what needed to be done.

Jew down is different because it is disparaging, and presumably was meant to be.

'Man up' is as harmless as the term 'chick flick' for describing a female oriented film. They both play on historical gender roles in a way that is not disparaging, exclusive, or discriminating.

Would "grow a spine!" be regarded as insensitive to invertebrates?

@k.a.gardner, close! Big girl's blouse.

@Scott, Stuffed shirt?

@k.a.gardner You're right, I suppose I should stop being a big person's buttoned upper body garment!