Planned man going public

Planned Man Going Public

By Guy Shepherd

PlannedMan

Planned Man— there ought to be a destination for men that celebrates and serves the best for men. That's our plan. You deserve it. We all do. In fact, our culture needs it. Check us out. Tweet

Highlights

Planned Man celebrates twenty-first century masculine values.

Mainstream male brands are all dying from the same illness: They don’t have a self-conscious understanding of what it is to be a man.

Everything we do—our own self-understanding—is predicated on our belief in shared human equality

What is good for the gander really is good for the goose. Equal application of equality is on our pathway forward and upward.

Planned Man is embarking on a much-needed enterprise. We are doing it because there ought to be a destination for men that celebrates and serves the best for men. That’s our plan. You deserve it. We all do. In fact, our culture needs it.

When something ought to exist—but doesn’t—it is usually for a reason. Things out there are more than a little fucked up. There are real grounds for concern but also solid grounds for optimism.

Downside. We don’t presently live in a culture and a marketplace that likes men. Playboy is dead for a reason. ESPN, Esquire and GQ are dying for reasons. These mainstream male brands are all dying from the same illness: They don’t have a self-conscious understanding of what it is to be a man. They are letting themselves be blown around by toxic cultural and political winds.

Upside. If you launch a genuinely affirmative, egalitarian alternative to those failing dinosaurs, the market responds positively. Examine the success—financially and culturally—of the Experience that is Joe Rogan or David Portnoy’s Bar Stool Sports, Jordan Peterson’s rock-star success, or Bill Burr’s phenomenal comedic rise, and you’ll see the financial and cultural benefits of taking the path less-trodden.

All these guys are prescriptive to what ails us. If you go by the reaction of the woke mob on Twitter, these guys are raising various levels of deep, troubling concern. But if you look into them—as we have done— a profile emerges: these guys are American to the core, masculine to the core, and philosophically liberal to the core. (Yes, I am well-aware that Peterson is Canadian but he is certainly deserving of honorary Yank-status.) Planned Man’s and Guy Shepherd’s purpose is to join the revolutionaries and be a publication that leverages all that is good. And the good news is there is much that is good out there and ready for prime time.

There is nothing as practical as good theory, and our theory is that a lot of problems are solved by standing up a masculine ideal.

There is nothing as practical as good theory, and our theory is that a lot of problems are solved and minds and wallets opened by standing up a masculine ideal that transcends the caricatures. For the past few months, our team — all of whom have experience working for most iconic male brands, including Playboy, Esquire, Men’s Health, GQ and Rolling Stone — have been putting flesh to bone on the Planned Man ideal. We think it’s ready for prime time.

Everything we do—our own self-understanding—is predicated on our belief in shared human equality. Planned Man is not nostalgic for a return to old-fashioned patriarchy. This is not the 19th Century. There is no desire here to crawl backwards. Equality of the sexes, of all men and women, of all the flavors, before God and the Law is our Creed. If you are against this common ground, you are outside the American, traditionally liberal ideal. You are the problem.

Our goal has to been to create a rabbit hole for the soul. A place where you can lose yourself for a while and come out the other side better for having done so. Articles that address our interests as men. Reviews and short clips worthy of reflection and sometimes laughter. Asking and answering the large and small questions and problems all men face.

Guy Shepherd is an archetype of the American Guy—a man for all seasons—but particularly for our present season. Guy is not—Planned Man is not — nostalgic for a bygone era. While there is much not to like about our present circumstance, the way out and up is by living with equality properly understood. Equality is not the enemy of man and his principles and interests. What is good for the gander really is good for the goose. Equal application of equality is on our pathway forward and upward.

Our goal has to been to create a place where you can lose yourself for a while and come out the other side better for having done so.

Today marks the official beginning of Planned Man, our day zero. As you may have noticed, we don’t date our pieces because our intent is create an evergreen playlist of good material. The Four F’s doesn’t grow stale. Douché is always fresh. The Scent of a Woman—particularly Al Pacino’s flame-thrower of a case-closing performance — never grows old. And every man ought to wrap his mind around our Second Sexual Revolution and our MANifesto.