The ManCrush

I'm sure many of you have heard of something called "The ManCrush." It is a term that gets thrown around and is often misunderstood by both men and women. I shall set the record straight today and tell you all you need to know about The ManCrush. I'll give you a brief definition and elaborate on it so you can know what a Manly ManCrush is and more importantly know if you are going too far and at risk of losing your ManHood by Crushing on a man instead of ManCrushing.

A ManCrush is defined as: An unusually strong appreciation for and attraction to the Skills, Abilities, and Character of another man.

The key here is that the attraction/appreciation that a ManCrushing man has on another man is firmly based on a certain Skill and/or Ability. A ManCrush has nothing to do with the physical appeal of another man. That isn't to say that a man cannot appreciate and acknowledge the physical prowess of another man, but that cannot be the basis of a ManCrush.

For example, I have a ManCrush on Blaine Waters. He is an extremely talented guitar player/singer, a fine golfer and a master of the Golden Tee machine. Also, Blaine happens to be a fine looking man over whom the women swoon.

Notice how my ManCrushing is based solidly on Blaine's skills and after that I add the side note of appreciation for his God gifted physical appearance. If the order was switched around that would not qualify as a ManCrush and even worse that would disqualify me as a man. A true ManCrush is indeed a Manly thing and a good thing, but it is also a dangerous thing. You must have the solid foundation I'm talking about here and you must be careful that you don't wander into Crushing versus ManCrushing.
One way to protect yourself is to have more than one ManCrush at any given time. If you have just one ManCrush it can be too easy to over Crush, if you have two that way your appreciation of Manliness is spread out a bit and you're less likely to go too far. Two is the ideal number, you could argue for three but if you have three ManCrushes you're just thinking about men too much overall. It's best if you stick with two, one as the starter (obviously your main ManCrush at the time) and then a back-up to balance yourself out. As you live life you'll realize that ManCrushes will come and go, that's totally fine just be sure to stick with two at a time.

Personally I am at the optimum ManCrush number of two, the above mentioned Blaine Waters and also my sons cardiologist Dr. Gremmels. A very smart/skilled Dr. who is basically saving my boys life, also he dresses very sharply (notice there again, it's okay to acknowledge such things as nice ties as long as the foundation of the ManCrush was the skill and ability of the man).

A lot of ManCrushes can be found in Professional sports, I know a couple of friends who are currently ManCrushing on Adrian Peterson. That's totally fine, there are admiring his skill and ability to run people over.

I'm glad I could bring some clarity and give you a few guidelines for this oft gray subject. The ManCrush is nothing to fear, when handled properely it is Manly emotion that all men experience.

29 Answers

Today my body turns 29, I say my body because my mind is infinitely wiser than any other 29 year old and cannot be measured in years. As a gift to you I will answer 29 random questions about my life that I sense you all are curious about.

1. Yes, I had an MRI on my hip this week because my dance moves are so incredible mere perfect human hips can't handle them.

2. No, I did not get claustrophic in the MRI machine...I napped.

3. No, there does not exist a good reason for shaving chest hair (Applicable only to Males).

4. Yes, Man Crushes are acceptable for men (I'll explain further and define the parameters of the ManCrush in my next post).

5. Of course I'm excited for my wife's company's holiday party where I will eat copious amounts of awesome shrimp and mildly partake in the open bar.

6. Yes, I have sung karaoke using the super sappy song from "Nottinghill."

7. No, that is not girly. I followed the ManRules for karaoke and thus the song selection was negated (I'll explain karaoke rules at a later date).

8. Yes, I did once run down Chicago's Navy pier barking at the tourist boat called "The Seadog."

9. Yes, the boat captain honked the horn.

10. No, I did not surf in the Pacific Ocean when I was there and it was 46 degrees, I thought about it though.

11. Of course I at least ran through the ocean surf in nothing but rolled up jeans humming "Chariots of Fire."

12. Yes, Courtney and I flashed the Pacific Ocean from a cliff.

13. Yup, there's photographic evidence....from behind.

14. No, you can't see it.

15. No, I did not like having two dogs chase my wife and I while on a shaky scooter on some back streets in the Bahamas.

16. Yes, I have been to Prague and yes Ben and I chased down two drunks fighting over passports, Ben pushed one guy over, there was wrestling about and I sat on one guy while the cops came.

17. Naturally, I went snowshoeing in British Columbia and of course Tim and I faked a fight and make-up in a series of photos on the way up.

18. Yes, I did moon the mountains while skiing in Colorado.

19. Again, yes there is photographic evidence and you can't see it.

20. Definitely! Jumping out of a hot air balloon at the same time as my soon to be wife was the best "rush" experience of my life.

21. Actually yeah, I have ridden the Stock Market bull in lower Manhattan, Luke did too and of course there are pictures (you can see those if you want).

22. Most Cetainly, I drove with Jeremy to why-not Minot, North Dakota to buy cowboy hats and yes we listened to country music and rode horses and went to the Blind Duck.

23. Yes, during road trips I've been known to remove my shirt and hang out of a window and/or sunroof and howl and/or fake box to the Rocky soundtrack, it wakes people up and can lead to a few laughs.

24. No, Jeff and I did not feel bad for driving to Chicago and totally mooching off Luke as he was on a company trip, gotta love friends who have expense accounts.

25. What kind of person do you think I am??? Of course I avoided the guy selling cocaine in Jamaica and yes I said no to the guy who waded out to me while I was snorkeling and pulled a bag of weed out and told me I could pay him later.

26. Alpine Valley, that's my favorite place for concerts and I think I've gone to 4 (all Dave Matthews Band).

27. Yeah it was kinda crazy when my wife and I were in Palm Springs getting snowed on up on a mountain and then 30 minutes later we were down and hot in the sun.

28. Strange but true, I did see a man with a machine gun tell Jesse he couldn't use the handicap bathroom while we were in Amsterdam on a layover.

29. Of course, I know you had a great time reading this and yes I will be back next year with 30 more answers that you will thoroughly enjoy as you have these.