Steve Irwin - Man's Man? (Part 2)

Steve Irwin's posthumous status as a Man's Man, which I personally thought was an open-and-shut case, has recently been called into question by several authorities on the subject. But today the best argument yet was made in favor of his canonization in the most unexpected of ways: inadvertently, and by a Frenchman.

According to Jean-Michel Cousteau in this article, Irwin's touchy-feely approach to nature was inappropriate:

"[Irwin would] interfere with nature, jump on animals, grab them, hold them, and have this very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things. Of course, it goes very well on television. It sells, it appeals to a lot people, but I think it's very misleading. You don't touch nature, you just look at it. And that's why I'm still alive. I've been diving over 61 years _ a lot many more years that he's been alive _ and I don't mess with nature."

I don't think there can be a more convincing argument than the one Mr. Sissy-Boy Frenchman just accidentally made. The stark contrast between the two men's tactics when dealing with animals that could kill them with one swift motion leaves little doubt as to each man's Manliness. If cornered by a pissed off cobra, Steve Irwin would have grabbed that sonofabitch by the throat and then kept it as a pet. Cousteau would have put his hands in the air and said "I surrender!".