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This is great. In my comment, I almost mentioned that because of how much earlier people historically had children (than most Americans and Europeans do now), m
by ksdale 6y ago
This is great. In my comment, I almost mentioned that because of how much earlier people historically had children (than most Americans and Europeans do now), most of the people we think of as "masculine ideals" throughout history would have been (were) fathers.
The number of times I read about a famous historical figure on Wikipedia, and they mention almost as an afterthought that they had 6 kids...
But I didn't want to go off on a big tangent about the "masculine ideal" although I agree completely that there is ret-conning and we could definitely use a rethink of how we expect men to act!
- rayiner 6y agoI’m not sure who “Maximus” is—if the author is talking about the movie Gladiator, the whole premise of that story is that Maximus is a loving family man who kills the illegitimate Emperor who had his wife and son killed. Achilles had a son who fought in the war against Troy. Hector, who Achilles fought and killed, also had a family, and that’s a key part of his portrayal by Homer. He’s the loyal soldier who fights to protect Troy without any impure motive of seeking glory or power. The whole Odyssey is about Odysseus returning home to his wife and son.
- smogcutter 6y agoYup, just posted about this myself before reading further down. The whole line is a bizarre illiteracy that is, I think, unfortunately common.