From Mr. Darcy to Austin Powers...

NOT a typical British fellow...

He leans against the podium on stage, impatiently looking back and forth from his watch to the students who are slowly filing into the lecture hall. He wears crisp blue jeans, a tucked-in button down shirt, black loafers, and a navy blue blazer. Even though his attire is pretty professional, something about him leads one to see him as a bit disheveled, perhaps sloppy. His hairline is receding, and to be frank, I have not gotten close enough to this man to see whether he, like most of his fellow middle-aged British comrades, has inherited the unfortunate teeth that require a considerable amount of dental work. He speaks with a significant amount of confidence and sarcasm, and loves the sound of his own voice.Such is the persona of Professor Ian McKellen [Not his real name], the moderator of a lecture series. Each week, Professor McKellen introduces his well-to-do friends to lecture about topics relevant to contemporary British culture. He prefers to ask his own questions to spark debate between himself and the speaker before he allows the students to engage. He has a tendency to interrupt and steal the focus from the respectable speakers, always eager to have the final word. For example, after one lecturer extensively delivered a speech and had a lively back-and-forth with a student, for some reason the professor decided to advertise a scathing review some critic gave him years ago about how terrible his own book was.  What audacity and disrespect he demonstrated by disclosing such unnecessary and irrelevant facts.This anecdote is meant to confront the expectation that most people have of British men. Some assume all of them tend to be to be civilized, courteous, respectful, and dashing, Yet, in this search for one’s own Hugh Grant, Collin Firth, or Chris Martin, one tends to overlook the fair bunch of British men who are loud-mouthed, stubborn, cold, and misogynistic.  So even if Professor McKellen crosses his legs while he listens attentively, and always has the “distinct pleasure to introduce so and so,” he still condemns The Daily Mail for being a “girly paper,” and addresses the students as “you Americans.” Thus, he embodies somewhat of an unapproachable air of a stereotypical cocky British man.