What Men Want, by Laura McCullough

Laura McCullough titled her book of poetry, What Men Want, as if she were heading a list that answered a question. What do men want? Success? Sex? Alcohol? Faster and bigger vehicles? Since Henrik Ibsen, the feminist movements of the 20th century, and even in recently released movies, the question has been quite the opposite—what do women want? After all, sociologically speaking from the Western world, men are supposed know what they want and go out and get it or they are not men.

In McCullough’s poem, "In the Zeus Shop", the narrator chaperones her 17-year-old son inside a hunting store named after the most powerful god in early Western literature. The son wants to buy, along with a hunting gun, a brown shirt "matching the woods." The narrator, being a mother, buys him enough emergency-orange gear to prevent him from being shot by other hunters; but even as she does so, she knows she is releasing him into the world, or as she puts it, “to get into the woods.” While some people might consider hunting as a method to obtain sustenance, the narrator of this poem obviously does not. She hints as if it were a rite of passage into manhood. The boy in the poem behaves as if he thinks the same. The narrator compares herself to both Diana and the dead bear mounted on the wall of the shop. Diana is the goddess of the woods, a hunter, but she is also the goddess of childbirth, a protector. She wants to stop her son from blending into the schema of manhood, but feels immobilized like the bear. Pathos, ethos, and empathy are achieved through the narrator when she feels inert in contemporary society where it is still a man’s world and a woman’s duty to help men become successful. She even permits her son to enviously eye her car keys: “he want everything,” she thinks, “and God help him, he is sure to succeed.”

In two of her poems, "Latitude of Fellatio" and "What Men Really Want," McCullough covers the topic of sex (and she handles this topic tastefully and inexplicitly). While McCullough is saying that this is what men want, she is also making a statement that this is a manner in which women subjugate themselves. Moreover, in these two poems, she is talking about language, and she alludes that sex may be the only way for men and women to successfully communicate.

In "Summit," McCullough exhibits how a strong silent type of man diverges his personality after a copious imbibition of alcohol—“It took eleven drinks, several of wine/and then of vodka for my father to tell/his son in law, I love you.” Yes, men do want to show their feeling, but they are taught that this is not manly. Men are also taught that heavy drinking is manly. Alcohol and stoicism are often a dichotomy. The woman in the poem is confused, but accepts her father’s show of affection.

In order to be masculine, as depicted in several McCullough poems, a boy must ride a bike as fast as it will go, or build ramps and leap long distances. The boy on the block that can ride the fastest and leap the farthest is the most male. This is the Western-world male image superimposed upon his vehicle. When boys grow up, successful bachelors drive sports cars and successful married men own utility vehicles. Macho working-class men drive pickups—the bigger and more powerful the pickup the better. In "The Man with one Tattoo," the male protagonist attempts to save his wife’s life with his truck. This refers to another fixed male role in Western society—the savior, the type of man women believe they need.

McCullough inserts a proem in her book, a versification of a quote by Freud: “I have yet been able to answer...the great question / that has never been answered: / what do women want?" This poem is not arbitrarily chosen. McCullough is mocking Freud's sexist worldview.

McCullough has written an engrossing book that goes deeper than a simple rebuttal to Freud, and her book fathoms more than a list of things men want. Her finely crafted poems are profound in their exploration of men and women in contemporary society. If I may redraw some parallels, Ibsen, in his plays, portrays strong-willed, intelligent, well-read women who feel hampered as stereotypical subjects and nurturers to men. Ibsen was ahead of his time in that he was aware that these should not be roles of women who want to get out of the house and make a career for themselves. McCullough is showing that even with the advancements of last century's women-liberation movements and the related passing of laws to equate women with men, women still find themselves in the roles portrayed by Ibsen. Furthermore, in contemporary movies and several popular TV series, women are saying what they want. In What Men Want, McCullough is also saying what women want—but she goes about it in an original and intriguing way; that is, by showing examples of how men are trapped in societal mores, she advertently demonstrates how women are also trapped in societal mores.