Lynne Tillman: Men and Apparitions
When I try to picture a New Man, I think immediately of textured hair products, of conceptual photography, of the sipping of espressos in gallery-white cafés with baby-shaped lumps on chests. Of guys on bikes with just-filled growlers in their panniers zooming between start-up offices and estate garage sales. In my mind, the New Man is a man who is “enlightened” and lives in a city; someone who has “good politics” but who is also well-off enough to have the luxury of observing most injustices from a distance—that is, . Who self-identifies as an “ally”; who, with good intentions. And yet, in the age of #metoo and innocuous predators masquerading as writing professors, I’ve learned to be both grateful for and wary of these men.
