There was once a plethora of male characters in pop-culture who portrayed a very positive image of the chaste man. Those that come immediately to mind are: Bomba in the several “Bomba The Jungle Boy” series of films, Percival in “The Knights of the Round Table,” Alan Ladd in the motion-picture “Shane,” Hugh O’Brian’s portrayal of Wyatt Earp in “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,” Gil Favor from the TV western “Rawhide,” Ron Ely as Tarzan in the 1966 NBC series, and Adam West as “the Caped Crusader” in “Batman.” All of these men radiated masculinity, but in a very pure and unsullied form. They were self-confident men, secure in their own manly persona. They did not have to swagger or boast; they never felt the need to bag all the ladies; they didn’t even date! They were not desperate to prove their masculinity. As ordained by God, it was something that matured naturally within themselves: nurtured by a moral and Christian enriched culture, and by a steady and intact family.
All of that would change with the popularity of the “Bond” films which celebrated the false machismo of its bed-hopping lothario. Later on in the late 1960 and early-70s, this image of the sexually adventurous and immoral male was solidified in three other wildly celebrated films: “Easy Rider,” “The Graduate, and “Midnight Cowboy;” reaching an apogee in the sickly pornographic “Last Tango in Paris.” It was no longer acceptable to be undersexed. Men became self-indulgent and self-centered. In the previous generation, they channeled their sexual energy into charitable forms of sacrifice and a quest for spiritual enlightenment; epitomized by the quick exit of Tarzan at the end of each episode, before anyone could even thank him for saving their lives, the easy giving of his own life by Shane for the welfare of a noble family, and the journey by Percival for the Holy Grail. In the 70’s, it became about “me;” a mindset which has steadfastly endured until the present age.
In his prophetic “Theology of the Body,” the future Pope John Paul II would label this selfishness as a “utilitarian” approach to sex. In film, this idea was most famously materialized by John Travolta, during his several “strut” scenes in “Saturday Night Fever.” This egotistical form of self-aggrandizement has survived in the current craze for social networking and the “selfie.” It’s a modern mating dance that has only one aim in mind: sexual gratification. Self-giving and sacrifice are presently unheard of. Today’s loner heroes, who descended from the ugly “Spaghetti Westerns” of Clint Eastwood, are without fail seriously flawed; usually prone to take out their frustration in acts of extreme violence: Rambo, Wolverine, and “The Dark Knight.” Not surprisingly, oftentimes, their relationship with women are fleeting and perversely affected by their emotionally unbalanced state. They fail to exist as whole men. In a way, they mirror the plight of the modern Western male: unable to exist on his own, but unwilling to seriously bond. It’ a failure to launch, and a fear of commitment and intimacy. They are not true men, so they cannot give of themselves to a woman; or to anyone. Instead, they prefer the solitary, but all pleasing, obsessions of masturbation and pornography. Peter Biskind, the biographer of Warren Beatty, one of the most celebrated male icons of the last decade, estimates that Beatty managed 12,775 partners; Justin Timberlake founded his solo-career on bragging rights concerning an oral sex liaison with Britney Spears; and Justin Bieber gained “street” credentials by visiting a brothel. “Shane, Come Back!”
