A return to real men

I'm what you'd call a late adopter. Five years after people started rocking their iPods, I got my first Nano. Flat-screen TVs? I just bought one. And don't even get me started on GPS units. They still feel newfangled to me.

It's no surprise, then, that a full two seasons after the world fell in love with the AMC series "Mad Men," I'm just now discovering the entertainment powerhouse. If you happen to be a late-late adopter, it goes like this: In the '60s-era drama, soaked in alcohol and cigarette smoke, we follow the people behind the Manhattan-based Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. At the forefront of the social and business interweaving is Don Draper, played by actor Jon Hamm, a mysterious and brooding character who oozes sex appeal the way a cool glass of water will bead on a hot day; it rolls off him.

As my girlfriends and I squeal over episodes and analyze plot points, we keep coming back to Mr. Draper: Why is he so sexy, we ask? He's a cad. And a womanizer. He drinks, smokes, and cheats on his wife. But if he threw any of that our way? We'd jump on it faster than bridesmaids at the bouquet toss.

So, what's his secret? He is handsome, true, and he does have the perfect amount of chest hair, yes, but there are a lot of other characters out there who have good looks and are talented manscapists. Don Draper's appeal is bigger. In our modern age, where men practice meditation and embrace Mr. Mom culture, Don Draper represents a throwback to unapologetic masculinity. And it's hot.

Tom Schiavon, a Southwest Florida-based writer, blames the feminist movement for maneuvering men away from their masculine birthright. "I have begun to recognize that the feminist domestication of the formerly wild beast known as man was more regress than progress, a process that has left men emasculated and confused," he writes. "As men, we have become afraid to move or breathe lest we commit an unpardonable chauvinist sin."

Now, I'm as feminist as they come — my inner Betty Friedan bucks at his premise — but I can see his point. Since the women's movement, women have been flexing our muscles in relationships. We demand that men listen more, cook more, and clean more, all while expecting less.

we allowed to expect a meal,

laundry, or childcare," Mr. Schiavon writes, "even if we

are helpless in the face of

whisks, fabric softener,

and the degrading con dition of only having formula to offer our offspring due to inoperative nipples which are, apparently, only for show." Women have cut down on football and beer and converted our partners to yoga and lattes. In our zeal to make men our best friends, we have turned them into our girlfriends.

Which is why Don Draper is so appealing. Despite our pleas for sensitive partners, on a primal level, women respond to real men. Perhaps, then, guys should step away from the organic eating, fair trade-promoting trend and back into the whiskey-swilling, Lucky Strike-smoking "Mad Men" mentality. We could all do with a dose of that kind of masculinity.

Contact Artis

>>Send your dating tips, questions, and disasters to: sandydays@floridaweekly.com