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The World Needs More Men
It’s OK to be a man. And it’s OK to act like a man.
Unless you go to college. College, it seems, thinks being a man is nothing more than a catch phrase for being an unrepentant rapist even if you’ve never had such a disgusting thought in your life, nor actually committed the violent act. In college, being a man means you’re unable to find love, incapable of dealing with your feelings, have (or one day will have!) contributed to the degradation of all women everywhere and, therefore, must be neutered in public and private.
College can be a nasty place.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison (a school you go to when you’re not smart enough to get into Cal-Berkeley, and a school you send your kids to when you hate them) has initiated the “Men’s Project.” The six-week course:
…creates a space for critical self-reflection and dialogue about what it means to be a man and how masculinity impacts us and those around us
Sounds harmless enough. Until you realize that you don’t reflect on what a man thinks about what it means to be a man. Rather, you reflect on what some social justice harpy says you should reflect on. Mainly, why are you such a disgusting, violent freak?
Don’t believe me? Here’s the first line from the Men’s Project on the campus website: (emphasis theirs)
Media, hook up culture, alcohol, violence, pop culture; expectations around masculinity impact all of us
I’ve been a man all my life. My father was a man. My grandfathers were both men. My great-great-great-grandfather was a man, as was his father before him. And never once did any of them think being a man was about alcohol and violence.
That’s just a lie. Yes, a lie. An untruth. Garbage. Nonsense. Pablum. White noise.
Crap.
Just two lines later, in the same paragraph:
These conversations can help us better understand ourselves and empower men to work as allies to promote gender equity and social justice.
No. They can’t. Nothing associated with social justice can help men, nor can it ever empower men (or women, or thinking people in general) because being a man has nothing to do with gender equality and social justice.
Facts are tricky things, in that they can’t be explained away by dreams, wishes, and hopes. So, to try and help the social justice warriors who think they understand men, let’s go over a few fact-based ground rules.
- There is nothing wrong with being a man. Nothing.
- Being a man is different than being a woman. This is not “unequal.” This isn’t a bad thing.
- Men act differently than women. This is not “unequal.” This is fine.
As Dr. Helen Smith discusses in her book, Men on Strike: Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream — and Why It Matters, men today have increasingly opted-out of being men precisely because of creations like “Men’s Project.”
Dr. Helen:
…why should men participate in a system that seems to be increasingly stacked against them?
As “Men on Strike” demonstrates, men aren’t dropping out because they are stuck in arrested development. They are instead acting rationally in response to the lack of incentives society offers them to be responsible fathers, husbands and providers. In addition, men are going on strike, either consciously or unconsciously, because they do not want to be injured by the myriad of laws, attitudes and hostility against them for the crime of happening to be male in the twenty-first century.
Said differently, an entire generation of men are refusing to act like men because an entire generation of social justice lying jerks have told men that acting like men is a crime against themselves and humanity.
At Gettysburg College, male students are required to watch a movie on “toxic masculinity.” The film, The Mask You Live In, attempts to link the idea of masculinity to violence. In this case, to perpetrators of mass shootings, including the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead.
According to sources, the film maintains that the statement “be a man” is the single most destructive thing a growing boy can hear.
No. The single most destructive thing a growing boy can hear is, “Can you introduce me to your friend?”
There is no doubt that Dr. Helen is correct. Men, in truth and in the main, don’t want to be like women. Men want to take care of women, or the ones they love. They want responsibility, and want to provide. They seek it out. Men act differently than women. They’re not violent — that’s not being a man. Being protective, and being willing to physically defend or protect their loved ones is not something we should denigrate. It’s important. It’s valuable. And, yes, it’s worthy.
Violence for the sake of violence, like the Knockout Game, is not the mark of a man. That’s a criminal.
No subject I have ever talked about on radio has gotten a more positive, passionate response as my conversation on what it means to be a man. I said at the time:
There are many males out there but there are very few men left in the world.
Men are not violent. Men are not afraid to protect what is their responsibility, to defend what is their responsibility, to care for and to nurture what is their responsibility.
Men are different than women and it’s okay. There is no problem with this. There is no problem whatsoever with having certain biological imperatives and those being different than women and finding how good those things work together in the creation of families and in leading a life. Men are not rude or crude to women and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
But being a man doesn’t mean you’re there to accept nonsense and garbage and be hurt because somehow, that’s the right thing to do.
We need a society that raises men. Men are different than women and that is quite all right. Anyone who tells you otherwise is someone you need to exclude from your life.
That includes all those involved with the “Men’s Project” at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. And those involved with this sickening film at Gettysburg College. And any group, anywhere, that wants men to stop being men. Being a man is good, and the world needs many more of them.
And if you want to know what a society that hates men looks like, check out the tweet of this “man:”
How do you plan to spend the cold days of December? http://t.co/Rwf5AYc3bG #GetTalking pic.twitter.com/PBQ397yLf4
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 17, 2013
That was sent by this “man:”
Reposted from WIBC.com.
Published in Culture
Nice article. Somehow I don’t think the progs can kill off the Y chromosome.
I’m off to the gym to lift weights and grunt. I might even look at some yoga pants but I won’t talk to the yoga pants.
Great read! Now, let’s bring back Tracked and Targeted . . .
Also were Men! Manly men! Men in tights!
Wasn’t there going to be a Tracked and Targeted reunion in time for the Inauguration? I so would go to that!
Seawriter
Maybe it’s just me, but the shooter at Sandy Hook didn’t really look like someone who was overly-masculine.
My dad was a Gettysburg grad and a Marine. Don’t think he would fit in there today.
Here is part of what being a man is about.
Seawriter
If—
By RUDYARD KIPLING
Seawriter
Every time I hear a liberal complain about “toxic masculinity” and cite examples, I cannot help but see a reasonable (albeit imperfect) conservative idea that they threw away, and, lacking it, have had to make up something in its place. As Ayn Rand said, you can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.
We believe that most men are bigger and stronger than most women. In a civilised society, we would like men to use that strength for good: protecting their families, building things, growing food, serving in the military, etc. The Left decided that men and women are physically interchangeable (not just intellectually equal) and looked down its nose at the idea that women “need protection” (because it implies that we are owned by men, they say); then, they are stuck in a world in which men are still bigger and stronger, but all of the productive channeling of that strength and risk-taking is gone.
The Left also decided that women are just as sexual as men; they are then stuck explaining why men think, and act on the belief, that women are just as sexual as they are (with predictably negative consequences).
Alcohol? Violence? Men compete with each other in ways that are different than how women compete with each other. But the Left doesn’t acknowledge how competitive women can be with each other, so they struggle to understand male competition.
Off to Room 101 with the lot of you! Doubleplusungoodthink won’t be tolerated….
Yet another YouTube of “I’m a Man” by Spencer Davis Group. Stevie Winwood sang it. For all you youngsters, it takes a while to get to the singing. Be patient.
I think if you actually set foot on campus, those males, who are men and exhibit masculinity, are doing quite well. I suspect they do well academically, and even more so, socially.
At the end of the day (or semester) what makes a man attractive to females and other males (for friendship purposes) are those traits which have done so for thousands of years: Intelligence, virility, character (trust), courage, humor, compassion and leadership.
While those males who have shed their toxic masculinity may get some lip service, at the end of the day, that is not what women, and other men (straight or gay) want. If you look at salaries (pay levels), you will still find that taller men are the highest earners (excluding the NBA). Athletic men do better in work environments and social environments, in both recognition and advancement. Leadership is an obviously valuable ability, as are compassion and courage (intelligent risk taking).
So while the stories from campuses are humorous, they don’t represent the actual real world.
Here is a funny link.
Hi, Seawriter. I recommended this poem to my son over Christmas, which pushed us into a conversation about Rudyard Kipling.
This led us to academic articles about why this poem is only sugary tripe, Kipling was a horrible imperialist racist, and we should forget poems like this one because they were written by men like Kipling.
It was an interesting exercise.
(Yeah. I’m not making this up. This is really how the men in my family roll. They read poetry with their mothers, think deeply about it, and then figure out where poems fit into the grander context of critical analysis. They are also officers in the US Army who can kill you with their thumbs.)
Ultimately, we determined that Kipling was indeed marked in part by the times in which he grew up. If his love of empire was too much, he suffered horribly per the loss of his only son. And “If” remains an amazing poem. The critics who condemn it are thinking for the sole purpose of thinking.
It may be sugary, but it has long been one of my favorites.
I [heart] men.
I was interviewed today by a legislator (nice, Republican) who wanted to know why there are so few female game wardens, despite strenuous and quite sincere efforts on our command staff’s part to recruit them. (The ones we’ve got are awesome).
I gave my usual answer: “because there is a small population of people who want to be law enforcement officers. Of those, an even smaller population want to be conservation law enforcement officers, or game wardens. Of those, a really tiny number are female…and we compete with the Feds for them.” And I nattered on about weird schedules, and call-outs, and physical strength and fitness…
And then I added: “Because law enforcement is a traditionally—not exclusively—male occupation. It concerns that area of human life traditionally assigned to men, namely the control and deployment of violence. And law enforcement reflects a traditionally male expression of what it means to love your neighbor as yourself, namely “serve and protect.” It’s not that women can’t do this, or don’t do it well. But for men—not all men, but fortunately enough of them— there is a natural fit.”
The legislator was male. He nodded…nodded…and looked so grateful. I see that look a lot—it is the look of a man who has finally had someone (female) tell him: What you are is a very fine thing. What you are is necessary and noble.
Beautiful, Bridget! (Need to do a Boston meet-up someday, yes?)
Yes. But I am very connected to academia.
I remember having a long conversation with a smart, young man about how he wanted to hold the door open for his girlfriend when they brought in the groceries, but he felt she might think this action was somehow demeaning. He wasn’t sure if he should ask her to marry him either because… well… he didn’t want her to think he didn’t recognize her independence.
Granted, he walked on the left side of politics, but I wanted to hug him. That poor, dear boy. He really had been very confused by all the messages that have been hurled in his direction, and he hadn’t yet reconciled these messages with his own instincts… or basic civility… or traditional constructs that are traditional because they make sense.
The conversation made me sad.
Hey, at least she’s finally acknowledged my existence! Sure, I’ll introduce her, because once she gets to know him she’s bound to see what a jerk he really is, and then she’ll come cry on my shoulder, and that’s when she’ll realize I’m the one she really wants to be with…
Great article Tony!
Sounds like a program were emotionally in-stable and in-mature women try to make themselves feel better(aka Superior) by nagging men on how they don’t act like the fair sex. Also know as destroying civilization because all this is going to make spineless immature men who just will feel resentment and bottle it up. Men are way more Violante critters when they feel resentment. As typical with most things liberal they will create more of what they are trying to prevent because intentions is all that matter with them.
Morally their argument is no different than when a rapist says she made me due it because how she dressed or because she wanted it. They are the Female version of scum, thank God I don’t have any friends like that. A vast majority of the female prisoners I have come into contact with and dealt with are better human beings.
A side effect of affluence is the ability to entertain notions that are anti-species survival.
History can correct these foibles rather abruptly.
In the meantime, I recommend parents of young men stop sending them to these places of hatred and evil. Unless we have a societal collapse or a war, the only way we can root this out is to vote with our dollars.
Indeed, when I was a university student I don’t remember the more “manly” guys being the ones to get harrassed by the Womyn’s Studies crowd. It was more likely the bookish, nerdy types (who had less experience, let alone success, interacting with the fairer sex) who would run afoul of the Womyn’s Pitchfork & Torch Brigades because they said the wrong thing at the wrong time (usually due to stupidity rather than malice).
The “manly” men got no hassle from The Womyn. On the contrary, they were objects of desire.
< devil’s advocate mode = on >
Ah, but are cullings not sometimes beneficial to a species’ survival?
< devil’s advocate mode = off >
Men won’t act like men when boys can’t act like boys. The rot starts in elementary school where boys struggle to read booklets about community kale gardens and girl quarterbacks. When my oldest son’s teacher told us he was the only boy reading at grade level I volunteered to form a boy’s reading club for a few days each week. After a week we tossed out the booklets and began to explore Brian Jacques’s world of Martin the Warrior, fearless rabbit scouts and lethal badger lords. Most of the boys were reading above grade level by year end.
Tony, thanks for the best Trump reading for children. It was brilliant.
Tracked and Targeted captured the combative spirit that finally defeated the Clinton crime family. Thanks for that as well.
Milhouse, is that you?
No, the killer at Sandy Hook didn’t look overly masculine ( though he didn’t look effeminate either.) He also didn’t seem to have much contact with his father.
Re: # 24
Quake Voter, I wish I could say I had ever done anything as important for kids, other than my own, as your volunteer work with boys who needed to get better at reading. The most important thing for boys is to feel worth the time and effort of men.
Some good news: The next gen, lets call them 9-11’ers for now, are disgusted by the Millennial SJWs.
Anecdotally, my oldest and his high school buddies are good kids who smirk and roll their eyes at this mentality.
As in, like asking permission or something? Real men don’t need to be “empowered”. They are powerful enough in their own right.
I hope so, Dave Sussman. But the best inoculation a young man can have against this brainwashing is to have had, in the years prior to entering college, a good father/son or father/son like, relationship.
Kids can smirk and roll their eyes at a lot of things, and then still be nudged into believing them (or into denying to themselves their disbelief, and acting out of that denial) without the experience that tells them on a deeper level that the thing they’re being conditioned to accept as true isn’t.