Art of Manliness Alternatives for Women

by - Friday, February 15, 2013



The Art of Manliness is an incredibly popular men's interest site which is helping to revive "the lost art of manliness". Founded and curated by Brett McKay and his wife, Kate, the site offers a refreshing alternative to mainstream men's magazines by providing quality articles which aim to help it's readers "become better husbands, better men and better fathers" by looking to the past and exploring concepts of "manliness in action".

I've been a fan and subscriber of AoM for quite some time, and it came as no surprise to me that many regular readers are women. Though the site is directed at the male species, it seems the sheer quality and interestingness of the articles presented attract the attention of us ladies too.

Which led me to wonder - are there any alternatives to The Art of Manliness for women?

While Mr. and Mrs McKay acknowledge that there is certainly potential for a sister site, they have no current plans to create one as they are kept so busy writing new articles and maintaining the site. I did discover a couple of sites claiming to offer a definitive "art of womanliness" alternative, sadly I found these sites fell short of the mark. My preference is for timeless, well-written articles about womanhood, not simply rehashed posts about the latest fashion trends or information on how to snare a man!

In my quests for discovering quality sites to suit my own interests, I have been lucky to discover a handful which - in my opinion - offer viable alternatives to The Art of Manliness for women. If you're a regular Glamumous reader, you may already be familiar with some of these sites from the blogroll in my sidebar. I hope you will find them both useful and interesting too!

Experimental Wifery

Experimental Wifery is an intriguing site written by Alison Fincher Solove which is described as "an experiment for married and marriage-minded women who want to learn to be better women, wives, and people".

Alison promotes six essential qualities for women which are cultivated through her posts: Sane, Savvy, Sensitive, Sharp, Skilled and Smart. Popular articles on the site include: a guide to the 100 books every woman should read; how to show a man you're interested without giving him the wrong idea, and one of my personal favourites, how to shop like your grandmother.

Besides being wonderfully well-written, Experimental Wifery is also a treat for the eyes with each post featuring a different historical illustration.

Modern Mrs. Darcy

Written by mum of four, Anne, Modern Mrs. Darcy puts "a timely spin on timeless issues". Originally tagged as "redefining the accomplished woman" (in reference to a scene from Pride and Prejudice in which an impossible standard for such a woman is set), the site sets out to discover the qualities of a confident, happy woman in modern society.


Darling Magazine

Interestingly, I discovered Darling Magazine after clicking a Valentine's Day ad on the Art of Manliness site!

With its tagline, The Art of Being a Woman, Darling provides a beautiful manifesto which explains how the magazine hopes to "hold the mold of woman up to the fire to evoke a discussion on femininity and reshape an authentic design..."

Articles are categorised by the many different roles a woman adopts, such as The Intellectual, The Stylist, The Dreamer and The Explorer. Overall, this is a beautifully illustrated site with a wide range of interesting and insightful articles which I challenge any woman not to enjoy!

That IT Girl

While a little more fashion oriented than the other sites I've mentioned, I was very happy t chance upon That IT Girl and adore some of the site's flagship content.

Described as an e-zine dedicated to the forgotten art of being a fabulous, fearless, and feminine woman, That IT Girl is written by Maisha: a Midwesterner living in Texas who writes of her "passion for beauty, fashion, entertaining, cooking, traveling, living a charmed life and issues regarding personal growth".

Some of my favourite articles include advice on building a starter wardrobe, find the beauty in life and how to be a good houseguest.

Even more sites to peruse!

Alison Solove of Experimental Wifery posted some wonderful suggestions in the comments section for more sites we can add to this list:

Please take a look at Alison's descriptions in her comment below and be sure to let us know if we've missed any of your favourite sites.

How about Glamumous..?

I started writing Glamumous back in 2007 as a personal "mummy blog", though over the years I've refined my site's mission with the aim of producing interesting and insightful articles for mums of similar interests. 

"Exploring the art of modern motherhood" is the new tagline for Glamumous. I'm influenced by the content produced by The Art of Manliness and the excellent sites described in this post but have chosen to focus primarily on issues of interest to mums such as parenting, housework, budgeting and of course, looking after oneself.

An Art of Mumliness if you prefer! Though above all, I hope readers old and new will enjoy this renewed focus and I'm open to suggestions for any relevant subject matter you would like me to explore!

Can you recommend any other sites?

The focus of this post was to discover and share well-written and interesting sites which offer a woman's perspective as an alternative to The Art of Manliness.

Are you a regular reader of any sites I've not mentioned here? If so, please feel free to share your finds with Glamumous readers (and myself, of course!) so we can all enjoy a feast of reading material better suited to a more feminine audience.

Image credit: Martinak15, via Flickr

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2 comments

  1. Alison Solove @Experimental WiferyMarch 6, 2013 at 1:25 AM

    Thank you for the nice compliments about Experimental Wifery. Most of the design ideas were my husband's, so I'm especially proud of the way the blog looks.

    Here are a few more ideas for your list:

    Verily Magazine
    A sumptuous effort to re-launch women’s magazines in a more positive, beautiful direction.

    Elegant Woman
    A very popular, encyclopedic site about becoming a woman of class. Look for the reasonably-priced ebooks The Secrets of Elegance and Becoming a Woman of the Finest Class.

    The Good Women Project
    An explicitly Christian, surprisingly frank site for 18-28 year-old women. The site provides a forum for women who may not have an intergenerational community to ask difficult questions and share their experiences.

    The New Noblewoman
    “The Art of True Womanhood.” The author no longer posts, but the archives are a beautiful resource full of history, advice, and art.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amanda KennedyMarch 7, 2013 at 1:40 PM

    Hello Alison,

    Thank you for your wonderful suggestions for more sites we can include in this list! I've updated the post to include links to the sites you kindly suggested.

    I particularly enjoyed browsing through the archives of The New Noblewoman; it's such a shame the author no longer posts as I would love to read more!

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