"Are we animals?" with Professor Matt Gutmann

We're joined this week by Matt Gutmann, professor of anthropology at Brown University and author of the recently published book, "Are Men Animals? How Modern Masculinity Sells Men Short." This book takes a look at the broad range of masculinities across cultures and questions whether biology can really be to blame for male misbehavior (spoiler: it can't). We talk about his book, his background and how he became interested in the field of men and masculinities. Later, Matt helps us answer an advice question from a college student who winds up on a bad date after a disagreement about money.

Matt's website
Matt's book

Hey Man,

I’m 19 years old and have just started dating a girl that I go to college with. We’ve been dating and hanging for the last 6 weeks. On our first date, I asked if she was cool with splitting everything and she seemed fine with it. On this last date, though, I accidentally forgot my wallet in my dorm room. It wasn’t until it was time to pay for our food that I realized I didn’t have my wallet with me. I told her I would pay her back later when I got it and I was surprised that she was really annoyed by this. She said something like, “If anything, you should be offering to pay for me, not the other way around.” I kept trying to explain that it wasn’t intentional, I felt embarrassed and I wasn’t asking her to pay for me. It didn’t do anything to get her out of her bad mood and the date was pretty much ruined. We were supposed to go to the movies afterwards and she basically said she wasn’t going to buy my ticket. Instead, we went back to my dorm room and I paid her back on the spot. It’s only been a couple of days since, but things have obviously chilled between us. What should I do?

Signed,

Cash-poor in Columbia