The Trunk | The Art of Manliness
The Manliest Stuff on the Internet
“Travelodge said that 25 percent of men reported they take their teddy bear away with them when going away on business.”
“One in ten single men surveyed admitted they hide their teddy bear when their girlfriend stays over and 14 percent of married men reported they hide their teddy bear in the wardrobe or under the bed when any family and friends come to visit.”
Article at ABC News: Bedtime Story: 1-in-4 Grown Men Travel With a Stuffed Animal
To be filed under: Um, what?
Previous post: Put This On-Work
Next post: Rebel Fitness Guide from Nerd Fitness Now Available
The internet is a big place. A man can waste a lot of time searching for the manliest stuff the web has to offer. Let us do the searching for you. The AoM Trunk is a collection of cool stuff that we find while wandering the vast deserts of the world wide web. Like your grandpa's old trunk, the AoM Trunk is full of manly photos, films, and accouterments. Check back daily for new, manly finds.
Keep up with the latest acquisitions of The Trunk by following it through the following channels:
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
Pfft, I don’t go hiding my stuffed Snorlax when I have company over at my place.
The men answering that survey must have been jesting, or else this is really depressing.
Is there a difference between “stuffed animal” and “teddy bear”? I think so. I know a lot of guys with some form of inanimate animal in their possession, but I don’t think any of them sleep with them. Myself included (I have a golden lion tamarin I got from a zoo gift shop in high school. My wife has a bear she’s had for ages).
Travelodge. That’s the reason right there…they should survey other hotel chains and see the results – they’ll be much lower than 25% of men.
As far as traveling with them, a lot of times, kids will give a small stuffed animal (Beanie Baby sized) to their Dads when they travel, as a memento/good luck charm so they won’t be lonely.
My girlfriend gave me a stuffed bunny as a gift. I keep it with me when she’s not around to remind me of her. I don’t think there’s anything lacking in manliness in that. It’s just a comforting extension of the love I have for the love of my life. When she’s not around, I can have something to remind me of her.
And I imagine someday when I have kids, I’ll carry around something they’ve given me as well.
OK, I admit, I did it once when I was a teenager, but I wasn’t 18 yet. I did it as a joke when I went to spend the summer with my Aunt. She had years ago purchased a large bear for me. I packed everything, and still had not put anything in my carry on. I decided to pack the bear into a day pack and use him as a make shift pillow. After being picked up at the airport I got him out of the day pack and a huge laugh was had by all.
I fail to see how this is a good or a bad thing; it’s just a fact. No need to defend it, either. I have my teddy bear, and have for 25 years; if things go as planned, I’ll have him for the next 25, and beyond.
I never traveled with a stuffed animal when I was single, but now that I’m married and have kids, I tend to find at least one small furry stuffed stowaway in my carry-on courtesy of the kiddos. I make it a point to pick up a new stuffed animal on the way back so the kids can hear tales about how their stuffed animals met “new friends” on the trip.
I travel with a stuffed animal, but that’s because I find it funny to use a stuffed dinosaur as a travel pillow. it’s a piece of whimsy. if you don’t like it, that’s tough.
Whoa.
Like someone else said, plenty of guys have stuffed animals, but they dont nescisarily (I know thats spelled wrong) sleep with them. My dad keeps a stuffed dog on his bureau to remind him of an amazing dog he had when he was younger.
There may be exceptional circumstances (kid asks you to take it… Even then, though), but I’d say the only acceptable stuffed animal for an adult man is something he shot mounted on the wall.
-Andrew
You’d be surprised what lots of military men carry. I was given an owl beanie baby by the Chaplain’s assistant before my first convoy in Iraq with the caveat “As long as he’s with you you’ll be fine”. I carried that owl with me on every run, and none of the convoys I was on ever got hit. Call it silly, call it superstitious nonsense, or coincidence. I was happy I had it, and still have it now.
Those “1 in 4?” Not men. Boys who haven’t grown up, and still need their mommies.
I don’t know about traveling with a stuffed animal but me and my g/f still both have the teddy bears that we have had since they day we were born. They each hold tremendous sentimental value for us and we hope to have children someday to clean them up and pass them on to.
I think it’s cool that 25% of the men surveyed owned up to it. Everybody has stuff – knick knacks, posters, ironic decorations that secretly possess serious sentimental value. Why not stuffed toys, too? What, girls are supposed to have the monopoly on creature comforts? I’m a girl and I’ve never seen so many pillows as in a man’s bedroom. They are fort-ready.
I think especially when one is traveling, it’s nice to have something familiar around to remind one of home. Plus, there is something very cool about still having your teddy bear 50 years later. I knew a guy once who had his father’s teddy bear – that thing was ancient and well-worn, firmly in the velveteen rabbit category. Now *that’s* an heirloom!
WTF? if you have kids and they give you or store a teddy in you pack… great! its not YOUR teddy bear. if you have your own that you still hold onto and rely on, that means your balls haven’t dropped yet. i’m all for to each his own, but if i found out one of buddies still snuggles up with a teddy bear… it’d change my perspective on them and not in the good way. i say deal with your child abandonment issues then replace the teddy with a bosom, a hand tool or at least a bottle of your favorite spirit.
amendment… if you serve in the military at any capacity then you can carry what ever you want.
I don’t know what the big deal is about a grown guy having a stuffed animal. Read Theodore Roosevelt’s diaries and he talks about keeping his stuffed animal from his childhood. I think he would even take it on adventures with him.
There is nothing unmanly, in a classic sense, of a man retaining a token from his past. The idea that man has to be this muscle bound idiot who watches sports and drinks cheap beer is a feminist creation that modern man has played into. Classical man retains trophies from his past and proudly displays them as a way of communicating his overall character. It doesn’t matter if it was your childhood teddy bear or a a stuffed black bear, they are all representation of who you are and real man shows his entire story, not just parts of it.
I knew a guy who went through a real bad, and I mean real bad divorce. This guy could barely function on a day to day basis and was so lonely. He was seeing a shrink who told him to go get a stuffed animal as part of the therapy. (When he told me this I thought his shrink was just start crazy.) So, the guy went the Disney Store and bought a stuffed toy of his favorite character Tiger. I don’t know exactly what the therapy involved but the main point of it was to use the stuffed animal as a prop to help combat his loneliness and build up enough self esteem he could go out and make actual friends. Within about 2-3 months this guy completely changed. From down in the dumps to just a normal guy. He became sociable once again and within a few years fully recovered and meant a wonderful new woman that became his second wife. That guy loves that stuffed animal and displays it proudly. His new wife loves it too. He takes it travelling and it is a point of pride in his life. He will routinely show guests it and tell his story. And, this guy is a pretty manly guy too.
Point being, there is nothing about a stuffed animal that makes you less of a man. In fact, it can in some ways make you more of a man or even restore your masculinity. So if you have that stuffed animal under the bed take it out and display it. Why? Because you are a man.
When I had been in Afghanistan about 2 months my girlfriend sent me a stuffed alligator I had won her about 2 years earlier that she had sprayed down with my favorite perfume of hers…..for the next 5 months there was a bright red alligator rolled into my sleeping bag and I never once felt unmanly about it…..
When I used to travel for business, my two young boys, ages 7 & 9, would send along their miniature stuffed bear and tiger to take care of me. I think that this is one of the only non wuss responses that a grown man could give to this post.
1-in-4 blokes have the balls to own up to it:good on them! I’m failing to see what’s wrong with it, myself.
I have a little stuffed animal on my travel bag. It kind of looks like a monchichi, but is two inches tall.
It’s not the cuteness of the animal that attracts me to it, but of the memories of how I got it and who gave it to me. I received my little guy from a girl in Japan that I was on a date with. The stuffed animal came from a tea bottle (strapped to the outside) I had bought her and she kept it for a while up until a few days before my first deployment. The girl and I have parted ways now, but that little guy carries more memories than I can write.
Stuffed Animal Manly Verdict: Approved.
I have a teddy bear, given to me by my late Grandma. It’s in a box waiting to go to my kids, not traveling with me.
Stuffed animal from a girlfriend wife whilst in combat is one thing. Some computer nerd who bought it himself and brings it to nerd conferences is something else.
Rudegar,
I can’t help but ask, what about computer nerds that have stuffed animals send to them while in combat? Or combat veterans sent items while over seas but are currently attending nerd conferences? I have a stuffed spider that was sent to me my first deployment. It’s stayed with me in four different barracks assignments state-side and two combat tours. I’ve got pictures of it the different places I’ve been on leave, including a few “nerd conferences”. I’ve met up with fellow veterans at these conventions. Some I’ve kept in touch with and have relied on extensively to help support my fellow soldiers. Be careful who you put in to what group. The article mentioned men. I know plenty of men who are combat veterans, and plenty who have been called “nerds”. How many of them would call you a man?
I have a teddy bear named Oliver. I frequently carry him around. Ollie is the world’s cutest teddy bear. I have about 15 more bears in my room. And no. I’m NOT a mama’s boy.
I have many stuffed animals and several of them always lie in my bed. Sometimes I will cuddle them all. And I’m a 33 year old man!
I also talk to them, and they talk to me. I know it’s not real of course but I enjoy doing it to keep myself humored. It’s kind of like talking to oneself (which everybody does, at least in their head) for kicks.
They always travel with me too. Which is a royal pain because they fill out the entire of my hand luggage lol!
I don’t see anything wrong with it. I know society and especially women view it badly but frankly I don’t care much for all societal norms, if I break a few here and there, so what?
Besides, go Google “the sooty show”. One guy made a career out of stuffed toys and they are still going, 60 years later!
Well, I have two stuffed cats that I carry with me EVERYWHERE! When I was 8, I had a bad boating accident in which the boat sank and my father and I were in the water for 12 hours. Once we got picked up, I made my parents take me down to the beach for the next two nights to look for them. On the third night, I found them washed in and stuck to a bit of driftwood! If that ain’t a sign, then I don’t know what is! And anyone who doesn’t like it can go bugger off because I don’t need their company.