Sometimes, I’ll come across an old photo of Gregory Peck, Robert Redford or Paul Newman and I’ll quietly lament the fact that men like that really don’t exist anymore. It’s not solely about their looks – although a big chunk of it is about their looks and talent – but the whole idea of what it is to be a “real man” has changed so drastically in the past fifty years or so. Masculinity, as a concept and reality, has become fraught and fragile in equal measure. When we feel nostalgia for the olden days of masculine men like Peck, Newman and Redford, are we actually nostalgic for the more oppressive eras in which those men worked and thrived? Do we also feel nostalgic for a time when we knew less about “iconic men,” and when they could mistreat people in their personal lives and it was never revealed? I don’t have the answers. Neither does Jerry Seinfeld, but he’s still openly nostalgic for what he sees as the golden age of masculinity or something.

Jerry Seinfeld discussed his nostalgia for the 1960s, the decade of his childhood, and the setting of his directorial debut Unfrosted, in a new interview with Bari Weiss on her show Honestly.

“There’s another element there that I think is the key element [of the ‘60s], and that is an agreed-upon hierarchy, which I think is absolutely vaporized in today’s moment,” Seinfeld said. “I think that is why people lean on the horn and drive in the crazy way that they drive — because we have no sense of hierarchy and as humans we don’t really feel comfortable like that.”

The comedian also lamented modern masculinity.

“The other thing is as a man, I’ve always wanted to be a real man,” he said. “I never made it, but I really thought when I was in that era — again, it was JFK, it was Muhammad Ali, it was Sean Connery, Howard Cosell, you can go all the way down there — that’s a real man. I want to be like that someday.”

Seinfeld conceded that he never emulated those icons of manliness.

“I never really grew up,” he said. “You don’t want to, as a comedian, because it’s a childish pursuit. But I miss a dominant masculinity. Yeah, I get the toxic, I get it, I get it. But still, I like a real man.”

[From EW]

I’ll be slightly generous to Seinfeld – growing up in the 1960s, he had a completely different set of male icons to look up to and try to emulate. The idea that as a kid, he was in awe of Muhammad Ali – arguably one of the most high profile anti-war activists of the era – is very cool. That being said, it’s clear that Seinfeld is nostalgic for more than just “iconic ‘60s men.” He’s actually nostalgic for a time when men ruled everything, when men were solely the “dominant” force in culture and society, and a time when “real men” could do whatever they wanted with few repercussions.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.