The once-married artist said it was about "the battle of the sexes." I've listened to it mulitple times and get mixed signals...maybe like Jackson himself. Not sure what he feels about gay men. Is he being critical or accepting. How have you read it? in any case it's a great song on it's own.
Lyrics:
Take your mind back, I don't know when Sometime when it always seemed To be just us and them Girls that wore pink And boys that wore blue Boys that always grew up better men Than me and you What's a man now, what's a man mean Is he rough or is he rugged Is he cultural and clean Now it's all change, it's got to change more Cause we think it's getting better But nobody's really sure And so it goes, go round again But now and then we wonder who the real men are See the nice boys, dancing in pairs Golden earring golden tan Blow-wave in the hair Sure they're all straight, straight as a line All the gays are macho Can't you see their leather shine You don't want to sound dumb, don't want to offend So don't call me a fagot Not unless you are a friend Then if you're tall and handsome and strong You can wear the uniform and I could play along And so it goes, go round again But now and then we wonder who the real men are Time to get scared, time to change plan Don't know how to treat a lady Don't know how to be a man Time to admit, what you call defeat Cause there's women running past you now And you just drag your feet Man makes a gun, man goes to war Man can kill and man can drink And man can take a whore Kill all the blacks, kill all the reds And if there's war between the sexes Then there'll be no people left And so it goes, go round again But now and then we wonder who the real men are