Male By Birth, Man By Choice

The name of this blog comes from a longer phrase that I learned while I was serving my National Service - Male By Birth, Man By Choice. Until that time, I didn’t really make a distinction between being a male and a man but I have come to learn that being a male is an accidental matter of biology but being a man is a conscious choice to live life by certain principles.

As males, we are more than just what magazines like FHM, Maxim, GQ or Playboy would like us to believe - more than just the sum of our interests in women, nice threads, cars, games, sports and gadgets. We are more than sex-crazed animals interested in just getting more action which is what the magazines see us as when they publish those regular articles like ‘20 Steps To Land That Hot Babe’.There are many other things we are interested in and many more that we should be. We are not just males, but sons, husbands and fathers. We can do so much more when we move beyond the stereotypes culture has given us, move beyond the altars we have placed the idealized individualistic alpha male upon.

So, this blog was then started for me to talk about such stuff. But more than that, I hope for people to write in to share the stories about their life as a man with all the struggles, triumphs, joy, responsibilities and challenges it entails. It is my hope that through the sharing, we encourage each other, teach each other, are forced to reflect and learn more about ourselves.

Of course, to live life with what is probably an idealized core set of values isn’t easy. It isn’t always easy to accept and fulfill one’s responsibilities. That is why we aren’t just male, but we are man by choice. For if it was easy to be a man, what worth would it be?