You can play on the porch with the puppies, or you can run in the yard with the dogs, writes Emma Parker Bowles.

I've wheeled out this analogy in a variety of heated debates. Moped v motorbike. Beatles v Rolling Stones. Now I am using it to illustrate the division in modern menfolk. In the pink corner we have the metrosexuals, and in the blue corner we have the men. Just not very many of them.

Even Superman has gone sensitive. In fact, I realised just how weary I was when the only male characters in the movies who tickled my fancy were in Brokeback Mountain.

Yes, that's right, I got turned on by two gay cowboys. But what is the world coming to when two huntin', shootin' and fishin' and kissin' cowboys are more butch than a superhero?

The chances are, if you are reading this road test, then you have petrol pumping through your veins already, which immediately puts you in the man camp, miles away from those deeply unsexy metrosexuals. Or you're a lady petrolhead like me, which means you like proper men not sissy boys.

But the good news is that apparently we are on the verge of a 'menaissance'. It's all terribly exciting and the word on the street is we're looking at a return to raw, old-fashioned manliness.

Professor Harvey C Mansfield has published a book called Manliness, which is an intellectual call to arms for men to reassert their power and identity, encouraging them to recapture the old manly values we used to love such as decisiveness and assertiveness.

Then there is the abundance of 'fratire': I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max, Real Men Don't Apologize by Jim Belushi, and The Alphabet of Manliness by George Ouzounian.

I am thinking of penning my own tome, called 'Why Metrosexuals Ming' and I would include a whole chapter on 'why men look gay in convertibles.' Unless, that is, they are driving the BMW M6 Convertible. Because the M6 Convertible is without doubt the manliest cabriolet in the world.

Actually, it's the only truly manly cabrio on the market today - you wouldn't get any Eurotrashy peter Stringfellow-style poseurs in this bad boy, because they just wouldn't get it. It is too understated, and it's masculine in a confident, louche kind of way and it doesn't scream, 'look at me, I have a tiny willy!'

Imagine the BMW 650i got arrested, did some bird and then came back a lean, mean fighting machine. But without the dodgy tear tats.

Or if you're being unimaginative think M6 Coupe with the roof chopped off, because from the door handles down, the styling on the M6 Convertible is identical. It's also got the same multi-layer roof as the regular 6-Series Convertible, with the retractable glass rear window, that works at speeds of up to 20mph.

But the M-styling does the business. Unapologetic, assertive and decisive. In Alpine white as on our launch car it looks a little bit wide boy, but in a sexy, Ray Winstone way rather than in a chavvy way.

The white also really emphasises the flared side-sills, bulging wheelarches, and makes the typical M-division quad exhaust pipes (with the diffuser and flaps on either side to improve aerodynamics) stand out. My favourite design feature on M cars is always the wheels, and these 19-inch, light-alloy, M doublespoke options are wheel nirvana.