#111: Why Men Fight & Why We Like To Watch With Jonathan Gottschall

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2015

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Jonathan Gottschall was an associate professor of English whose career had stalled in mid-life. Then one day he looked out his office and saw an MMA gym and he decided he was going to train to become a fighter to prove something to himself and to write a book about the biology, anthropology, and sociology of male violence. In the process, many of his assumptions about violence and masculinity changed. What he once saw as something terrible and despicable, came to be seen with some nuance. Part memoir, part anthropologic treatise, Gotschall's book The Professor in the Cage is a fascinating look at the role of violence in masculinity. In this episode I talk to Gottschall about violence and masculinity and why getting in a fight may be the best thing a man can do for himself.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bretmicae here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.
0:19.0	So why do men like to fight?
0:22.7	Why do we like to compete?
0:25.0	Whether it's boxing or MMA, football, basketball, any other type of...
0:30.2	We'll come up with a competition for anything.
0:33.4	Not only that, why do we like to watch other men fight and to compete?
0:37.8	What's going on there?
0:38.8	Well our guest today is an English professor that wanted to find the answers to those questions
0:44.0	so he decided to train to become an MMA fighter.
0:47.6	His name is John Gotchel.
0:49.2	He's the author of the book, the professor in the cage, why men fight and why we like to
0:54.2	watch.
0:55.2	And this is one of the best books I've read so far this year and one of the best books
0:58.8	about masculinity I've read.
1:01.2	He weaves in a story about his training to become an MMA fighter with anthropological,
1:05.8	biological, sociological studies about male violence, male competition and male status.
1:11.9	And it just provides a lot of fascinating insights to how these aspects of masculinity have
1:16.5	shaped men throughout time, throughout cultures.
1:19.4	And he makes the provocative case that ritualized combat.
1:22.9	Whether it's boxing or MMA, competition and violence sports like football, serve a role
1:28.6	in society and actually a pro-social role.
1:31.4	So we're going to talk about what role violence should have in a man's life, even in the
	...

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