(Bad) Advice for Fictional People: How to Be a Guy.

I fully agree with Mr Weaver’s assessment of the … ahem … advice, but would like to add that I do think it’s useful in one regard: it’s a handy checklist for making a nice stereotypical and generic western culture male. Picking & choosing up to 2/3 of those traits WOULD yield a decent societal expectation of a man & work for a throw away character’s surface gender expression. The full list can be used to get the kinds of guy “Bro Country” is about and the guys who identify with it try to emulate, but please note even here it ought to be exterior characteristics … not internal reality … of a character who will be unimportant and non-lasting.

To use the advice for its intended purpose would be a terrible and sexist idea unless you’re writing satire, parody, or other comedy.

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