Guys' guide to love says men should date like Mad Men in post-Sex and the City age
Are women the new men? No - women still appreciate a Don Draper-style masculine male, believes Robert Manni.
While the New Yorker has put his bachelor days behind him, marrying for the first time at the age of 56 last year, Mr Manni is a firm believer in men taking a somewhat old-fashioned approach to relationships.
That's not to say men should be inherently out of touch, but rather, as he postures in his new book, that men should 'step up.'
A whole lotta man: Modern day guy's guys need to celebrate women's ascent while preserving their masculinity, argues Robert Manni in his book, a modern day take on Mad Men
Through his novel, The Guy's Guy's Guide to Love, the advertising industry veteran argues that men need to embrace the ascent of women while making no compromise over their own masculinity.
Speaking to the New York Post, he said: 'I dont think guys are bad. I think they need to step up.
'I think if they do, theyll realize that the ascent of women is really a good thing.'
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In a storyline that reads like a modern day Mad Men - and a reaction to the success of Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City series - the book seems to right some wrongs as to female judgements of the male's psyche.
Roger, a womaniser, is pitched against Max, a struggling 'ordinary' guy, working in advertising.
'A lot of the time, women want to believe that guys are a certain way,' he tells the paper.
'I dont think women want guyswho are crying... I think you get one cry card. Thats one per year, or maybe per ever'
'They say, "Oh, my guy would never go to a strip club." You know what? I dont know about that.I suggest, in my book, that every guy to some extent has an inner Roger.'
Having watched women gain power in the boardroom and bedroom, he believes it is time for men to recognise that the rules of dating have gone out of the window.
'I think Candace [Bushnell] herself said her characters were trailblazers,' he says, 'and now thingshave changed. I think its a more even playing field. Whoever wins, wins.'
Oh his blog, Mr Manni lays his ideas bare. Women don't appreciate a cry baby, or having to make all the moves, he writes.
'The world is changing rapidly, but I still think you could say that men are still more the aggressors and pursuers when it comes to relationships, and I think women probably appreciate that.
'I dont think women want to be the all-out seductress all the time.'
Post-Sex and the City dating: The Guy's Guy's Guide to Love by Robert Manni
While it's ok, in Mr Manni's opinion, for a man to wax while women pump iron at the gym, it is not acceptable to sit around, feeling sorry for one's self.
'I have yet to meet any woman who wants to be with a guy whos a real! blubber puss... I dont think women want to be with guys who are crying on a frequent basis. I think you get one cry card. Thats one per year, or maybe per ever.'
And a genre of recent popular movies have done little to help the image of the guy's guy, Mr Manni says:
'A guys guy is not the Judd Apatow male that we have witnessed clogging up our movie screens for the past decade.
'These characters are hilarious, but have actually hastened our need for the guys guys to step up and be counted. Women want men to be more manly, but not in a macho-jerk wad way.'
The book and blog have a sobering lesson, despite the often comic depiction of the New York dating scene and its more subtle subtext.
'At a certain time, every party ends,' says Mr Manni.
'And you dont want to be the last person in the room when the lights come on, standing there with a styrofoam cup in your hand.'
Don Draper would surely concur.
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