The Truths About Feminism and Masculinity – Part 2

The Catechism states that all men and all women are created with equal dignity and are loved equally by God. What is does not say is that men and women are created equal, as in “one and the same.”  A male’s and a female’s equality is in their worth and dignity, not in their capability or biology.

As feminism has grown in recent decades, genuine, natural masculinity has taken a hit. What authentic Catholics call traditional and natural about males, the secular culture calls toxic. Many believe the made-up term “toxic masculinity” is a real thing with men being hateful and detestable.

The beta males who fall for this propaganda gladly attempt to change the natural order of things. They would rather live a docile, submissive, feminized life than to suffer the culture’s shunning if they were to appear too manly.

We Do Not Want Effeminate Males

Because of society promoting feminism and blackballing masculinity, too many modern men lack true masculinity. There is a problem when the culture is full of effeminate males. We see it in the Catholic Church when a large number of priests are effeminate if not downright homosexual.  We see it in society at large with many unmanly husbands and dads who are too soft to push back against the depraved secular culture and too weak to follow Jesus’s Truths.

Effeminacy is on display these days (as described here and here) by the failure of fathers to fight as hard as mothers against so-called trans boys competing in female sports against their daughters. It is on display by the millions of young men who find commonality with other males by lazily sitting on couches all day playing video games instead of going out into the world to sweat, construct, shepherd, and/or evangelize.

Saint Thomas Aquinas in The Summa Theologica defines “effeminacy” in men as a vice. An effeminate man, according to Aquinas, is soft, readily yields, and is reluctant to suffer due to an attachment to comfort. Aquinas notes that an effeminate man will not stand up or push back against wrong. Their failure to act is due to lacking the courage, finding things too difficult, and/or not wanting to give up pleasurable comfortableness.

As the spiritual head of his family, the husband/father is called to boldly and resolutely take the lead in his wife’s and children’s practice of the faith. In life, a masculine man is one with the fortitude to swim upstream and fight against the current, even though it will be less enjoyable and more arduous.

Patrick Henry, the famous American statesman and Revolutionary War commander, once said:

“Adversity toughens manhood, and the characteristic of the good or the great man is not that he has been exempt from the evils of life, but that he has surmounted them.”

Our Young Boys Are Being Raised Improperly

Never before in our history has the culture been content with raising boys to enter adulthood somewhat resembling women in their mannerisms, appearance, and temperament. Except for these past few decades, husbands and dads have always been the strong authority figure in their families. 

Masculinity declined when society embraced the godless ideology of radical feminism. The world promoted women to be men’s equals in everything. The modern belief became there is no difference between the sexes. At the same time, too-spirited, little boys were overly medicated to make them more docile. 

The world’s distorted view of masculinity falsely advertises it as being a toxic vice. The media, Hollywood, and the educational system warn young men about the evilness of growing up masculine. To be masculine supposedly means to be dangerously aggressive and nastily sexist. 

The culture praises effeminacy. It falsely teaches men to become emasculated, delicate pushovers who will tolerate everything while moving aside to let the women lead.

The truth is a real man acts as both a servant and a leader. If a man is a servant while neglecting to be a leader, he simply comes across as a doormat. If a man is a leader while neglecting to be a servant, he comes across as a tyrant. Thus, a masculine male will balance the times he needs to serve his family and the times he needs to lead his family. 

Males Are Purposely Made to Be Different than Females

Our Creator wanted men to develop and live their lives a particular way. He forged men’s muscles to grow faster and stronger than a typical female’s body makeup. The Almighty created males both biologically and intuitively differently. This is why throughout history men have progressed into being fighters, hunters, and protectors.

Females are naturally “softer” than males in both physicality and temperament. This is good for women as it is what God designed. Nonetheless, recent generations have lost their appreciation for these purposeful and beneficial differences. The world needs men to remember their manliness and cooperate with God’s design.

Men should not desire to develop into effeminate beings. They also should not feel shame for acting vigorously, resolutely, and fearlessly. God formed males to naturally not be “soft” but to be more “hard” in both their physicalness and make-up.

Jesus Was the Epitome of Masculinity

Real masculinity is about fortitude, perseverance, and standing for your beliefs in the face of peril. Real masculinity mean sacrificing. Real masculinity translates to a rejection of this world, because a Christian knows he must live in this world, but not of this world. 

Jesus’s words in Matthew 7:13-14 explain how one can choose to take one of two paths in life. One is wide and easy, so most take this. But it leads to destruction. The other path is narrow and hard, so few take this. Since an effeminate man’s principles are malleable and his actions easily manipulated, he will stick to the easier route that most of the world is taking. 

Jesus Christ was clearly the ultimate example of manliness. Modern society has falsely transformed Jesus into a hippie-like, peace-loving, pacifist figure who only wants to hug everyone and tolerate everything. The actual Jesus manifested masculinity when He:

• suffered for 40 days in the desert;
• fashioned a whip, lashed at vendors in the temple, and overturned their tables;
• called out the scribes and pharisees as “hypocrites,” “blind fools,” “serpents,” and “brood of vipers”;
• said tough things even if it upset people so much that they chose to leave Him, such as “eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood” or “sell what you possess and give to the poor”;
• commanded people to sin no more;
• stood up for a woman being stoned to death;
• and ultimately suffered the worst imaginable pain possible when He sacrificed His life for us.

We need to teach young boys that in Jesus Christ they will find the ultimate model of masculine virtue and strength that they need to strive for in their future lives. We need to understand that society itself will benefit if more males – from young boys to new dads to veteran priests – can acquire this same type of masculinity.

Promote the Natural Traits of Masculinity to Boys and Young Men

Society goes by way of the family. The family goes by way of the husband/dad. If we want to change the world for the better, husbands and dads must be real men. If we want to revitalize the Church and bring more people to Catholicism, clerics must be truly masculine.

The culture tells us that the traditional masculine traits, such as stoicism, competitiveness, and aggression, are evil. Boys need to grow up rejecting this falsehood and taking pride in traditional, God-given masculine traits. 

Parents of boys and other role models for young men (such as teachers and coaches) should affirm to the males under their care that true masculinity is not shameful. The journey towards becoming a man is something good God planned for them. 

Moms, dads, teachers, and coaches must not shy away from promoting the natural traits of masculinity to their proteges. These traits include the beauty of boyhood with its renowned wildness, grubbiness, and competitiveness.

Note that it is fitting for boys’ parents to also teach their sons that there is nothing unmanly about showing authentic emotions or about tenderly loving and gently respecting the women in their lives. But boys and young adult males must resist society’s propaganda which prioritizes male softness and passivity over male fortitude and vitality. 

One obvious example of the figurative neutering of males in our latest generations is evident in athletics. The culture has purposely weakened many sport competitions and promoted male softness during this period of believing masculinity is toxic. Trophies get awarded to every teammate regardless of accomplishment. Dodgeball gets outlawed at school recesses. One school district came up with wimpy rules like “baseball and football games are not permitted at any time” and “haphazard running, chasing and tag games are not permitted.”

Furthermore, previously male-only groups where boys could proudly be a part of a “manly” association are being desecrated. Historically male-only groups like altar boys and Boy Scouts now must allow girls to join. Because of this “takeover,” less boys are serving at Mass these days and Scout troops are hemorrhaging members.

God Made Us Male or Female For a Holy Purpose

Today’s society has confused people into not understanding the benefits of masculinity in men and femininity in women. There may be men who display toxic behaviors and act in harmful and dysfunctional ways, but so-called “toxic masculinity” is a bogus term. Masculinity is not toxic; it is a divinely given trait from our Creator. 

Likewise, God has made each and every person in his own image. Thus, what females receive from God through their sex is inherently good. We must not allow radical feminists to corrupt natural femininity and eliminate gender roles.

We can appreciate the ways by which men and women are similar to one another and share some common personality traits. But we must also cherish the core ways in which the two sexes differ. Only man-like men can pass on genuine, natural masculinity to their boys. Only woman-like women can pass on genuine, natural femininity to their daughters.

We uphold the natural order of the sexes not because it is the old-fashioned thing to believe, but because it has always been true since God created male and female in the Book of Genesis.  Respect for the traditional roles of the sexes is not because we love seeing men dominating women but because we love the orderliness of God’s creative purposes for males and females.