We may have mentioned that we’re a fan of the men. Give us a guy who can quote Gloria Steinem or Michael Pollan (or Gloria Steinem quoting Michael Pollan) and we will show you a guy we’re dancing around like vegan Bacchante. For December, we brought you the greatness that is Ryan Gosling. Now for the new year? We’re agreeing with Time and Oprah on this one: author Jonathan Franzen is our January Man We love.

Why is he of the well-written word so cool? As our editor-in-chief Sara notes, “I love how he notices textures, his sense of humor, and that great big brain. It’ll be fun to see if he lets out his mean streak in future books. And, he’s adorable, tall, and watches birds. What’s not to like?”

Further, his list of accomplishments as a writer is the stuff of dreams for this one. There’s his National Book Award in 2001 for The Corrections, a New York Times best seller. He’s a Pulitzer Prize nominee. He’s been called “The Great American Novelist” by Time Magazine and he’s tangoed with Oprah Winfrey, only to come out on top as her final book club selection ever with his latest tome, Freedom.

So yes, there’s a wee bit of fawning of the Franzen. But a recent interview got us thinking about what this man is doing for the environmental movement with Freedom. Freedom tells the story of Walter Berglund, a “greener than Greenpeace” environmentalist who takes on the task of negotiating strip mining for a bird sanctuary.

Walter wants to save a warbler species that Grist, in an interview with Franzen, points out leads his to make “a Faustian deal with a mountaintop-mining coal company.” Franzen works with the American Bird Conservancy, which is dedicated to helping wild birds of North America. But when asked if Freedom is an activist book, Franzen makes the point that modern day environmentalism includes many shades of gray. As he mentions,

There is a place for radical stances – Greenpeace with the whales, some of the anti-mountaintop-removal stuff going on in Appalachia. And you can actually sometimes succeed by taking the really hard-line position. But much more often, if you talk to the people doing the work and getting things done, it’s a gut-wrenching compromise every day. You have to cultivate extremely wealthy people. You have to cut very imperfect deals with industry. People have said to me, about Freedom, “Oh, you must be satirizing this poor Walter Berglund who gets corrupted when he sets out to do good.” In fact, what I was after was a purely realistic portrayal of contemporary conservation work in Appalachia.

Franzen further points out that his way of turning people’s attention to certain interests is to hook them on the human story first. He concludes that “engaging people on the environment is really, really hard” and cautions that people should not lose sight of that.

Franzen’s subtle exposure of the modern-day environmentalist in his latest work is fantastic. But he also knows how to motivate his acolytes. He recently told The Guardian, “It’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.” Point taken, Mr. Franzen. (She writes, as she sits on her hands to avoid clicking on the latest headlines.)

Photo courtesy of Chris Buck for The Guardian

The post January’s EcoSalon Man We Love: Jonathan Franzen appeared first on EcoSalon.

People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive. Esquire’s Women We Love. What if the two had a baby and put it in gdiapers? And then it grew up into a man who could pick out produce like Michael Pollan. Or make us laugh like Jon Stewart. Or keep us guessing like Johnny Depp.

Bottom line? There are far too many good men out there to be ignored. And so, month by month, we at EcoSalon will perform the painstakingly arduous task of researching the most attractive men ever to frequent a farmers’ market. And then we will serve him up on a platter of details as to why we want to have his babies.

And so, for December, we give you the man whose sensitive smile and ability to manfully grip a cereal bowl while staring wistfully into the distance is legendary. (What’s he looking at? At his girlfriend gardening? At a doe playing with her fawn? Who’s to say?) We give you – Ryan Gosling!

Why is The Gosling just so damned perfect? First, he speaks feminism. In his latest film, Blue Valentine, he plays a character who performs oral sex on his wife, played by Michelle Williams. Because of this scene, the MPAA gave the film an NC-17 rating. To which Gosling replied:

You have to question a cinematic culture which preaches artistic expression, and yet would support a decision that is clearly a product of a patriarchy-dominant society, which tries to control how women are depicted on screen. The MPAA is OK supporting scenes that portray women in scenarios of sexual torture and violence for entertainment purposes, but they are trying to force us to look away from a scene that shows a woman in a sexual scenario, which is both complicit and complex – it’s misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman’s sexual presentation of self. I consider this an issue that is bigger than this film.

Michelle Williams also addressed this issue in a spectacular fashion – click here to read more.

So he’s a feminist, or at least talks like one. But the outspoken activism doesn’t stop there. Gosling has urged action on Darfur and is a critic of inhumane slaughter tactics used by McDonalds and KFC. He drives a Prius. And he had a long term relationship with noted greenista Rachel McAdams. Just how green in Rachel? She has her own green web site. Which practically makes him our husband.

Also? He is extremely a-dorbs. I have seen The Gosling in person. Seeing a celebrity can go either one of two ways – you’re struck with the knowledge that he or she is actually “meh” or you’re struck flat to the sidewalk that he or she is possibly the most attractive person of your preferred gender you have ever laid corneas on. This would be our Ryan.

And last but not least, he was Lars.

Do you have a man or woman whom you think we should love? Let us know. We promise to share.

The post Introducing EcoSalon’s Men We Love: A December Ode to Ryan Gosling appeared first on EcoSalon.