Reflections on Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway

This is a part of a selection of readings I gathered to reflect on what a healthy approach to masculine identity would look like. I navigated my own journey into a version of manhood in my late teens and early twenties successfully, but now in middle age I see a lot of young men struggling to navigate this journey and for a variety of reasons failing to launch into life. I come to this with humility and curiosity seeking those who may be able to articulate more clearly the journeys that may lead young men to discover a fulfilling life of work and relationships and to help those moving into the space of elders to support and guide them in this journey.

Scott Galloway has one of the larger media footprints of individuals who have written on masculinity recently and if you have ever heard him speak, his writing is similar. He is a good storyteller who brings together his personal experiences with the broader research that others have done on men. Notes on Being a Man is a combination of an autobiography/memoir with a frame looking at the advantages he had as a mediocre white man because society invested in him—advantages no longer present for the current generation of men.

Galloway stakes out two positive aspects of masculinity: providing and protecting. The traditional role of masculinity was to provide for their family and by extension their society. Galloway uses the shorthand of providing excess value throughout the book to talk about how an adult man should repay both their family and society for the resources invested in them as they grow. Protection is the way he reframes the strength that masculinity provides. In a world where cruelty is mistaken for courage, Galloway points to the positive value of protection that is a part of masculinity.

Notes on Being a Man is a very approachable and easy read. The cadence of the writing makes it sound like the author is having a conversation with the reader. If you are looking for something that is heavier on research this is probably not where you want to start, but if you are looking for something to have a conversation with a young man this is probably far more beneficial. I know in my own life I learned a lot from the stories of the men around me as well as the biographies of people I respected. So much of the online conversation around masculinity has been dominated by politically conservative voice and I appreciate Galloway as a political moderate contributing his thoughts to how we support and mentor the next generation of young men.