Toxic masculinity is not what you think it is.  It is the scapegoat for everything from mass shootings to rape to domestic abuse to male oppression.  But if we’re being honest with ourselves, why are we mistreating the very men who protect, lead, and care for our country?

If you’re asking me, China doesn’t get much right, but they are doing one thing right: they are making their men more manly.  Masculinity is praised in the CCP… and for good reason too.  America needs to get on the manly bandwagon… and fast too!

What Is Toxic Masculinity?

Toxic masculinity has a variety of definitions on the internet.  Very Well Mind says it “involves cultural pressures for men to behave in a certain way”, and “toxic masculinity refers to the notion that some people’s idea of ‘manliness’ perpetuates domination, homophobia, and aggression.”  This definition also involves the typical stereotype that men should be tough and show very little emotion.

HealthLine wrote a comprehensive list of toxic, masculine traits, including “aggression”, “mental and physical toughness”, “heterosexism, or discrimination against people who aren’t heterosexual” (which I guess must mean girls can be toxic males too?), “emotional insensitivity”, or “self-sufficiency”. 

Psychology Today states that toxic masculinity harms not just women but also men.  How could it harm men when they are the ones who are toxic?  Check it out for yourself.

“We don’t have to look far to see traces of toxic masculinity in many men.  Why is that?  It is not because men are naturally bad people.  It is because men were boys who were often taught terrible lessons from a very young age-for example, ‘boys shouldn’t cry,’ ‘boys shouldn’t be sensitive,’ ‘boys should defend themselves,’ ‘boys shouldn’t want to play with girl’s toys,’ ‘boys should be rough,’ ‘boys should want to conquer the heart of girls,’ etc.  These are only a few of the very common damaging messages boys grow up to absorb” (Psychology Today).

ALSO READ: Ditch Out the Groupthink: It’s Anti-American

An Analysis of Toxic Masculinity

An analysis of “toxic masculinity” is in order here.  Is toxic masculinity truly toxic to society?

There is a form of masculinity that is toxic, but the same goes for women.  Men can be abusive in a relationship or overly controlling, but so can women.  Men can dominate, but so can women.

The issue here is not about toxic masculinity but about a cultural problem where up is down, and right is wrong.  America can no longer know a good man when she sees one.  A tough, strong, physically healthy guy who wants to lead a wife and children is (shall we say it?) sexy to most women.  And those women who want to be the leaders can marry and live their life that way too.  It’s a free country.

But the problem is that as the narrative continues to evolve, and a new generation of boys is rising up, young boys are digesting the message that their masculinity, their testosterone-driven urges to wrestle, run, conquer, and save others is bad.

So let me get this straight.  As we read up on what toxic masculinity is, sources like Health Line and Psychology Today are condemning what they call “toxic” masculinity when it is really just men being… men.  Boys being… boys.

The narrative claims boys should be allowed to play with girl’s toys if they want.  Boys should cry if they want.  Boys should not defend themselves?  

Moreover, as we condemn straight males and their manliness, we are tearing down the moral barrier between heterosexual and queer theories.

What is wrong with little boys playing with manly toys and little girls playing with girlie toys?  Live Science found that, if given the choice between boy’s toys and girl’s toys, female monkeys will choose a girlie toy, and male monkeys will pick the boy’s toy.  Surely these male monkeys are not “captive to a ‘guy code’”!

Maybe it’s a natural impulse and a result of God making us two different genders.

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The Biblical View of Masculinity and Femininity

Genesis 1:27-28 describes God creating Adam.

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (NKJV).

Man’s natural instinct to take care of (i.e. “have dominion over” the earth, tame animals, plow, plant, and harvest the land by cutting down trees and clearing dirt so that it becomes a farm.  Building a house on the land and taking risks as he builds a family with his wife.  God made him that way!  Both men and women have a natural instinct to build a family together and steward the land together and create laws for their countries.  It’s human nature, and when we emasculate the men in this scenario, it disrupts the entire biblical order and causes chaos.

And we would be remiss not to read what God said when He made Eve.  It was worded differently for a specific reason.

“And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him’” (Genesis 3:18, NKJV).

The Bible makes it clear that the two genders have very different impulses, wants, needs, and purposes.  Man was made to conquer the wild earth, cultivate the ground, to lead and protect his family.  The woman was made to be “a helper” for the man and to raise and nurture her children.  These are not degrading roles but biblical, God-given roles for us to follow.

Toxic Masculinity & Biblical Masculinity

Men are the sheepdogs of society, as Dan Bongingo says.  When the media says that rape, shootings, war, and abuse all point back to men, we have to remember… what about the male police officers who rescued  victims of those circumstances?

Toxic masculinity says “aggression, violence, [and] ambition – all the stuff of ‘toxic masculinity,’ right?”

Allie Beth Stuckey says it best when she says, “When you try to make men more like women, you don’t get less ‘toxic masculinity,’ you get more.

“Why?  Because bad men don’t become good when they stop being men; they become good when they stop being bad.  Aggression, violence, and unbridled ambition can’t be eliminated from the male psyche; they can only be harnessed.  And when they are harnessed, they are tools for good, not for harm.

“The same masculine traits that bring destruction also defeat tyranny.  The traits that foster greed also build economies.  The traits that drive men to take foolish risks also drive men to take heroic risks.” (PragerU).

America needs strong men to fight the wars and protect the homefront.  We don’t need weak men who will stand by and look the other way when a woman or child is being hurt.  We don’t need weak men who don’t care about their country, businesses, communities, or families.  We need strong men to build America.

There are situations when masculinity turns bad, and there are places where femininity turns bad too.  But those are the minority.  

America must stop committing the generalization fallacy where when a minority does something, the majority must do it too.  Toxic masculinity is the minority.  We want more real men.

Toxic masculinity is not what you think it is.