Piers Morgan Is Tired Of ‘Male Public Soul-Bearing,’ Thinks Men Need To ‘Man Up’ And Be More Like ‘Real Man’ James Bond

If Piers Morgan is having a tough time on Twitter, you know things are currently about as normal as they could be for the media personality. When he’s not being told to “f*ck off” on television or feuding with celebrities for their cleavage, he’s typically trolling and causing a fuss on social media. He’s had issues with the Women’s March and shared an unwanted opinion about Muhammad Ali’s legacy shortly after the boxer’s death, but his latest is focusing on mental health for some reason. For Morgan, it would seem that the current trend of “male public soul-bearing” is a problem for the former CNN host. With Prince Harry and many others making headlines for opening up about their grief and depression, mental health is once again getting a boost. While replying to a discussion about men opening up about their emotions and still being ridiculed by others, Morgan decided to play the opposing card there:

Several took exception to this line of thinking and the idea that folks should “man up” in the face of their troubles. While replying to some of his critics, Morgan dug in for an example and pulled out what he thought was the prime example of a “man’s man”:

As many would go on to tell him, James Bond is a fictional character. He couldn’t be a real man at all, even if he tried really, really hard. Folks ran with it, though.

https://twitter.com/laura_hudson/status/860895370137579521

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Now obviously Morgan doesn’t truly think James Bond is real, that’d be silly. But that also doesn’t mean his example is correct, though. He’s defended the character’s status as a “man” in the past, even going to bat against rumors that the character could be portrayed as gay on screen in a column back in 2015. He also turned in this review for Spectre back in 2015:

All fine and good if you’re going with Bond as an image of masculinity, but things are different for 007 today. As many people pointed out, Daniel Craig’s turn as the character has given him layers and goes against the idea that Morgan presented in his initial post:

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On top of that, citing a fictional character when discussing a very real issue makes Morgan look more out of touch than he typically does. James Bond drives the best cars, sleeps with all the women he meets, drinks like a fish, and has survived countless brushes with death. He might be an image of manliness like Rambo, but it isn’t exactly a healthy or realistic path to follow. If Bond were a real man, he’d likely be riddled with some disease by now either from his drinking or his promiscuity.

It could be Morgan just trolling people online — something he’s done plenty of in the past — or it could be that he’s just out of touch with something many men are dealing with daily. It’s easy to say “man up” to people and cite fictional men when it’s not your problem, but mental health and mental well-being aren’t fictional concepts. They’re also not tied to some “ism” or some novel theory. It’s a concrete thing that has affected countless people who likely wish they had an avenue to talk over the years, but didn’t because it wasn’t the “manly” thing to do.

Morgan does slightly address this, but most of the replies and his follow-ups deal with the “James Bond is real” talk. He also makes another odd claim about the Queen not “emoting” in public which one Google Image search could debunk in a second.

In the end, it’s another example of Piers Morgan being himself and ended up drawing criticism from nearly everybody for it. He seems to love it, the people seem to love it, and a real issue is kinda buried because of it. But if you don’t have a “real man” to look to and you agree with Piers, he’s ready to take the job: