Speaking in an interview with pro-free speech, former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss, famous comedian and actor Jerry Seinfeld spoke about numerous subjects, including why he wants to see a return of “dominant masculinity” to American culture. Seinfeld says he misses seeing the sort of male figures he admired when he grew up.
Commenting on that, Seinfeld spoke about how being a “real man” was what he wanted to do when he was young, a view influenced by his role models in the popular culture. He said, “I always wanted to be a real man. I never made it. I really thought when I was in that era, again, it was JFK [John F. Kennedy], it was Muhammad Ali, it was Sean Connery, Howard Cosell, you can go all the way down there. That’s a real man — I want to be like that some day.”
Continuing, he said he knew he would be attacked for promoting “toxic” masculinity but that he still thinks that what he called “dominant masculinity” is a good thing and is the sort of things he likes seeing and wants to see return. He said, “I miss a dominant masculinity. Yeah I get the toxic, I get it, I get. Still, I like a real man.”
The two also talked about the America of days past. Weiss said, speaking about the good aspects of America in the 1960s, “Obviously there were problems. [The] civil rights movement had yet to start, like a zillion. But the thing that was present that I feel like isn’t now is a sense of, like … a common culture.” Seinfeld, agreeing, said that another good aspect of the era was “an agreed-upon hierarchy.” Predictably, Seinfeld was attacked for that comment and the masculinity one by woke British outlet The Guardian, which said:
Today’s edition of Bigotry Is Acceptable Again comes via Jerry Seinfeld, who appears to be on a mission to make sure people don’t associate him with a much-loved sitcom from the 1990s but with being a boring reactionary obsessed with shaking his fist at progress.
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I’m not sure hierarchies are ever “agreed-upon” – I rather think they’re imposed. Do Weiss and Seinfeld realize what it sounds like when they reminisce about an era before the civil rights movement when there was an accepted “hierarchy”; when Black people and gay people and women, they seem to be saying, all knew their place?
The answer to that question is probably: “Yes, and they don’t care.” Bigotry seems to be perfectly acceptable now and not something that impedes anyone’s career.
Watch him talk about “dominant masculinity” here:
Seinfeld also talked about the death of comedy at the hands of political correctness recently, saying, “It used to be, you would go home at the end of the day, most people would go, “Oh, ‘Cheers’ is on. Oh, ‘M*A*S*H’ is on. Oh, ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ is on. ‘All in the Family’ is on.” You just expected, there’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.” He continued, “Well, guess what — where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and P.C. crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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