Traditional Masculinity is Non-Toxic

What people and the media are getting wrong about manliness and masculinity

It first really struck me that we were entering a new realm of political correctness when the now-famous Gillette ad started to be spread across US television screens and YouTube. However, that sentiment had been brewing for a while, that is that negative traits of men were being clumped together with many classical traits of men and having them all fall under the banner of toxic masculinity. That ad did receive a lot of backlash, however, the message was reinforced with other brands and even amongst general conversation, particularly on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. That is, that classical masculine behaviour is toxic and there is nothing good about it.

Whilst many would argue that is not the case, and that “we’re only talking about negative traits only seen in men”, the reality tells a different tale, and we can see that compounded with movements which ‘join forces’ with toxic masculinity, such as the wage gap story. The entire wage gap hypothesis is based on the idea that men have suppressed women in the business world as well as in social circumstances, using their toxic masculinity to either pay men more or pay women less.

There are valid arguments that there are many factors of being a man that are not desirable, and we can also agree that men and women should be paid the same for the same work, no one is debating that. However, it is, for lack of a better word, toxic to suggest that simply displaying masculinity is in itself, toxic. We see this with the simple act of opening a door for a woman now being frowned upon, and being translated as “you see me as weaker than you - as if I am incapable of opening the door for myself”. We have men such as Keanu Reeves now famously posing for photographs with female fans, holding his hands out in the air as to ensure he doesn’t touch them. I don’t think we are heading in the right direction with this, men being afraid of what once came naturally and innocently to them. The more we suppress classical masculine traits, the weaker as a society we become. Strong, masculine men are needed as much as nurturing, feminine women. The classical roles in society that men and women have held for centuries are not all bad, and of course, no one is saying a man shouldn’t be at home tending to the household and women out in the workforce climbing the corporate ladder if they so wish. But men need to be encouraged, not discouraged, to be manly. To do manly things, such as doing manual labour, being a ‘protector’ so to speak, by joining the law enforcement services or just by being confident enough to engage in hostile situations for the betterment of others. There is also a strong argument that a masculine presence in the home is highly desirable in the raising of children.

The more we steer toward a society when men and women are forced to be totally equal in all aspects of life, the less desirable a home we create for ourselves, in my opinion. I wish to live in a world where men and women are not equal because the reality is we are different, and different for the better. What I’ve learned over my years is to take what natural passions and talents you are given and go with them, and the evidence suggests many of these passions and talents are inherent in our biology, not learned. When we try to force a round peg into a square hole, we will inevitably be left with an unhappy population, wondering why they made the choices against their instincts that they did.

Roger

Fear and Loathing in New South Wales

How the world has become so fearful since the end of World War II

During the Siege of Malta in WW2, the air forces of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany bombed Malta to the brink of annihilation. During the war, the 97sq mile Malta absorbed the impact of 14,000 bombs, destroying 30,000+ buildings. For a stretch of 154 consecutive days and nights during the siege, 6700 of those bombs were dropped.

When the air-raid siren would sound, the Maltese people would take cover in their homes or in shelters. They would wait until the sirens ended and the raid was over, then, the starving but strong Maltese would go back into the streets, and back to their jobs and lives, knowing that at any moment, the next raid could begin without enough time to seek shelter.

They, like many others during the war, had literal bombs dropping around them, and yet they got on with it. They didn’t cower, terrified of what awaits them beyond their front doors.

I write this as Sydney, Australia, my home, enters another week of consecutive lockdowns due to the new strain spreading of COVID-19. However, I am not here to judge the competency of the state and federal governments of New South Wales and Australia respectively, rather comment on what I believe the news and current lifestyles have created. At 11 am every day, hundreds of thousands of Australians tune in to a live broadcast of Gladys Berejiklian, the state premier, and Kerry Chant, the chief health officer of New South Wales, informing us of the dire situation in regards to the Covid spread in our cities and state. It is, in my opinion, overkill. The news stations, desperate for something to report on, eat it up, with live feeds to reporters in all the affected locations, donning their surgical masks, even though no one is to be seen. One can just conclude it is to protect the cameraman standing ten feet away. Another might conclude it is to show their virtue at being so careful and cautious, meanwhile spreading numbers of infected people, irrespective of the very few numbers actually suffering from the symptoms of the virus.

But perhaps the most telling and worrying factor is how so many people, to my surprise, are absolutely terrified to go outside or to be near another human being. Walking through the shops the other day, I had a woman hug the wall and mutter under her breath at me for walking within 5 feet of her. Dropping my daughter off to daycare, I was greeted by a man who stopped in his tracks as I walked down the exit walkway towards him. Again, hugging the wall and holding his mask to his face as if that will save him from the virus I must be carrying. We are so into fear porn, that we assume everyone is infected, and really, it’s not their fault. The news sites here in Australia literally tell people to act as if everyone has the virus and, to dob people in who are breaking the ever-mutating restrictions.

How have we, a society just a generation or two from those men and women who endured World War II, become so fearful and weak, that we are so complicit in everything the news tells us, without accepting our own critical thinking capacity to judge risks versus rewards for ourselves. My theory is that life has become so good, and more and more people are engaging in office and computer work, that people have lost their risk barometer. If you don’t engage in physical sport, or a physical job, or anything where you have to assess risk for yourself, then everything becomes life or death to you, even stepping outside your front door. Men and women who once walked amongst bombs dropping in their cities are gone, replaced by those who seemingly en masse, do not look after their own health, do not engage in anything physical, and who don’t understand that we cannot lock our people inside their homes forever.

One look at social media and the future isn’t encouraging. With every post about the lockdowns, come people literally begging for more. Lockdown harder, lockdown longer, how dare anyone leave their homes.

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”

This quote has never seemed more true.

Roger