In a society where fathers have been sidelined in favor of the state and innocent lives are reduced to an inconvenience, is it any wonder there would be those who don’t place any value on the lives of their fellow man? Far too many young men grow up with no guidance, no example of what a man should be. They never become men. They become overgrown boys without direction.
Just what, exactly, did you think would happen? Boys are growing up on a steady diet of prime-time sitcoms where the father is nothing more than comic relief and mother uses her female empowerment to belittle and degrade her husband. Gee, who wouldn’t want to grow up and have that? So we present role models in the form of professional athletes. Our modern day gladiators. Masculinity isn’t a core part of who they are, it’s something they express as a show. In a tidy little sanitized box.
The aren’t Real Men, they’re more dancing monkeys performing for their coin.
Real Men don’t need to swagger. Real Men don’t have to prove themselves at each and every opportunity.
Real Men don’t rape. They don’t have to be taught not to. Masculinity is not toxic.
Ladies, I know you’ve been indoctrinated with this idea of the empowered woman, but you’ve got to understand that you cannot seize this power by robbing the men in your life of it. He does not lessen you by opening the door for you. He is honoring you as we should be teaching our sons to do. It is not because you can’t do it yourself; it is because at least in that moment he is showing you the highest respect by acting as your servant*. As a woman of respectable character, you will accept the gesture and never take advantage of the honor given you.
Real Men know that sometimes violence does solve problems, and in those situations he should not be constrained from using it. A Real Man would never use violence against a weaker party for the purpose of gaining some sort of advantage.
Society has warped the definition of masculinity. It is not bravado and chest thumping. It is certainly not the physical prowess of the jersey wearing demi-gods. It is certainly not present in those with no self control. A Real Man understands his own monster and keeps it in check. There is no honor in defeating someone weaker than yourself. In taking what you want regardless of right and wrong. There is great honor in humility, in standing up for what is right, and defending the defenseless. Real Men, and the women that love them, understand this.
Real Men beget Real Men. Woe to us all in a society where we’ve minimized fathers. Wives, mothers, and daughters hardest hit.
*Ephesians 5:25