We live in the age of attacks on the very concept of masculinity. I do not wish to overstate the case by inferring that all effeminate male fashions and trends – such as man buns, skinny mom jeans, makeup for men, etc. – represent the death of masculinity. I do not think fashion has that power. Taken as a whole, however, virile manhood is undoubtedly under siege in today’s culture.
Evidence of the sickness
College courses on “toxic masculinity” and the terrible, militant homosexual movement are perhaps the worst of these attacks. This is because they are so pervasive and exert a great deal of influence over impressionable young souls by re-defining what is “normal” in human sexuality. But the latter is more dangerously subtle in its obsessive glamorization of deviant lifestyles. They utilize all the channels of pop culture to reach the youth. You cannot watch a modern sit com, drama, or film today without the obligatory same-sex couple, homosexual theme, or gay-normalizing propaganda.
Even worse, profound distortions of manhood by those who call themselves “transgendered” have given us what I call a “drag queen masculinity.” This is nothing less than the complete inversion of virile masculinity. I do not have space here to address the absurdity of the “transgender bathroom” debate. It exposes little girls to perversion and puts them at risk of sexual assault. Some of these incidents are even too vile to feature in this publication. It is a clear indication of the horrible gender dysfunction of modern society.
Drag queen story hours
The most disturbing gender-bending fad, however, is taking place right now in our public libraries: drag queen story hours. I have no idea how this movement got started, but it was a predictable outcome of the modern war on masculinity. These events feature grotesquely-painted drag queens, sometimes wearing horned headdresses. They perch above groups of little children like demonic nannies reading them stories.
To me, this conjures up heinous images of the multi-horned beasts of Revelation. It should make any decent person’s blood boil. The devil is never content to destroy an institution. He must mock it once he has set himself up on his throne above it. Theologically, drag queen masculinity is a systematic mockery of God’s eternal Fatherhood and the Son’s perfect Manhood.
Drag queens are equally an affront to women as well. They present a version of femininity that is distorted, hyper-sexualized, and very self-consciously vulgar. They are caricatures of real women. But that is perhaps the subject of another article.
Weaponizing the evil
The only thing worse than this insulting charade would be if the organizers forced their movement onto society against the protests of good and decent people. Wait! The promoters of the drag queen story hours are now going in that direction – in the guise of protecting free speech, of course.
A rally in June of this year, for example, drew a farcical display of police protection against totally non-violent protesters. The protesters were a group of harmless, concerned mothers praying the Rosary outside the library. The police actually posted snipers on the roofs of buildings in the area!
While it is mainly the moms who are organizing themselves against this evil, we have to ask where the fathers are. It looks as though the men are on the other side, with guns and Tasers. Some men do attend the moms’ rallies, apparently, but they are not a dominant force of change. In fact, one dad who attempted to interrupt a story hour in Maryland (non-violently) was taken off in handcuffs. He was charged with five misdemeanors in gratitude for his efforts to protect children from this moral atrocity.
Unfortunate as it is, the drag queens are going to marshal a disproportionate amount of press until men stand up in solidarity, and in force, to protect children from these attacks against their innocence. Drag queen masculinity has become a frightening and destructive trend in our culture.
The men of war and the war on manhood
The men of previous generations fought wars, built families, and worshiped God in churches. They took responsibility for children and the institutions of society that are largely dying out. Today, that masculine model is called “toxic.” These men have been replaced by soft, feminized ‘pajama boys’ who know little to nothing about the virtues of chastity, self-sacrifice, responsibility, and the heroism that fuels and helps establish the masculine identity. To the extent that a culture loses or degrades these virtues, human society becomes greatly impoverished.
As if to illustrate the point, I recently came across a shocking article in Time magazine. The article claimed that a full 71% of young men and women between the ages of 17 and 24 would not meet the minimum requirements for military service today. The article includes a quote from the army general in charge of recruiting. He says that “the quality of people willing to serve has been declining rapidly.” I could not have said it better.
I do not deny that there are still plenty of virtuous men in American society. But our anti-male, feminized, gender-twisted culture punishes the good ones, as noted above. Radical elements always shout them down, intimidate them, sometimes legally. Good virtuous men are often overwhelmed with so much pressure to conform to cultural norms that it is hard to be a strong and virtuous man in American society today. Every institution of the dominant culture – media, entertainment, politics, academia, even professional sports, conspires against virile masculinity. A Washington Nationals game even featured a gay man proposing marriage to his boyfriend recently.
Sources of hope
We are not, however, without hope for a rebirth of masculinity based on the warrior virtues of service of others, traditional moral values, and self-sacrifice. We have to believe that the seeds of Christ-like masculinity are planted deep in the soil of American culture, which, despite its many flaws, has shown much authentic virtue to the world in the 243 years of its existence. There is great hope for a rebirth of virile masculinity in our country.
I saw a meme the other day which made me think of all the American men who have fought and given their lives for others in heroic self-sacrifice. It featured a US Marine in battle gear with the caption: “Toxic masculinity: protecting snowflakes since 1775.” America is still the land of the free and the home of the brave.
This article appeared at Catholic Stand.
