h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Seeing as I´m getting older, I´m wondering when I make that transition. I guess the question is merely what´s in the title. What do you consider makes someone a Man, rather than just an adult male of the species?

I'm having problems formulating an answer to the question - because there seems to be a lot of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy inherent in it. (http://www.logicalfallacies.info/presumption/no-true-scotsman/)

For everything that someone wants to call a "man trait" there are countless examples of men who it wouldn't apply to. So, without saying "Ah, but those men aren't *real* men", I don't see how I can give a better answer than "adult males of the species", as you put it.

Well I did mean *real* Men as opposed to just men, so let us hear what you have to say.

Well, that's why I mean I find it hard to answer. Surely "real men" are the kind that actually exist all around us? Not the kind who match all the attributes encouraged by Kipling, the Party, various theologians or Some Bloke In The Pub?

You can use another word than "real" if you want.

>>What makes someone a Man?<<

Farting loudly, getting into fights and chasing after "skirts".

But if a "man" is something more than "an adult male of the species", I'm not really sure what you're asking.

Perhaps you should rephrase the question - is it something like "what behaviour is desirable in people", or "what way should male adults behave"?

It seems to me to be a question about ethics or desirable behaviour or something, but I'm not really sure *what*.

Well, if I could tell you what I mean by Man I guess I wouldn´t need to ask the question. Then let us go with "What is the ideal behaviour of an adult male?".

Any number of times, I asked myself "am I am man?" I was in the world without family, wearing my country's uniform, living a life as it went. I finally found the answer to the question.

One morning, I woke and realized that I had not asked myself that question for a long time. It just didn't seem necessary.

When you relate better to those people you would classify as adults rather than children?

When police officers look barely out of primary school? I had that moment on Saturday night. He was a kid! Then I realised he wasn't, I was just older.

Perception of self? Emotional maturation?

It's sort of like 'cool'. If you try to be cool, you're not cool. If you want to be cool, you're not cool. When you're cool, you just are. Other people say it, you don't know what they mean. You're just yourself.

In the area that I grew up, some people also declared that a person was a man when he fathered a daughter. Old, old German notion perhaps.

When you realise, for certain, that you can make your way in the world without the help or support of anyone else. Not that you start actually doing it - just the moment you realise that when you need to, you will be capable of doing so.

Male genitalia. That's all that's required to be a man.

Humm.. Though one would argue that men who lost theirs in a tragic accident were still men.

Yeah, biological definitions of maleness are bound to fail.

Most of it is self-realization as Twiglet pointed out. And some is how others see you perhaps

Also, note that my offer of a definition applied to the question "What makes someone a Man (rather than a boy)?", as opposed to the alternative possible implied parentheticals such as:

(rather than a Woman)
(rather than a mouse)
(rather than a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri).

(rather than an ultra-intelligent shade of blue)

Okay, I'd expand that to say that anyone who was born with male genitalia or have acquired male genetalia after being born in a woman's body is male.