The Patriot Post® · Progressive, Feminist Culture Is Toxic, Not Masculinity

The “progressive” Left is waging a very dangerous war on the very foundation of civil society, seeking not only “equality” for women, but the destruction or feminization of men, which accomplishes the same thing. The war is waged against the foundational elements of society, such as marriage, gender roles, and even the concept of gender (or, more correctly, “sex”) itself.

And boys and men are taking the brunt of the attacks.

The American Psychological Association, once a respected scientific organization, has exchanged the pursuit of knowledge for the promotion of leftist ideological propaganda. Earlier this year, it released new guidelines for psychologists on how to work with men and boys. The new guidelines treat masculinity as a disease, declaring that “traditional masculinity — marked by stoicism, competitiveness, dominance and aggression — is, on the whole, harmful.”

The goal of mental-health treatment for men, according to the APA, is to teach men and boys that what makes them who they are is, by definition, bad and harmful, and in need of eradication.

Is it any wonder men are nearly four times more likely to commit suicide than women?

Men are also being bombarded with harmful and contradictory messages. Our education system pushes to have boys diagnosed as ADD/ADHD and drugged simply because they are more rambunctious and active, which is their nature. They are bombarded with pornography and sexualized images in media at every turn, corrupting the natural goodness of the sex drive, but then mocked when they adhere to a code of morality and chastity. (See: Pence, Mike.)

Leftists shame any male who exhibits typical masculine behavior, now dubbed “toxic masculinity.” They shame boys into abandoning their masculine nature and adopting feminine traits. When gender confusion occurs, boys are told they are girls trapped in boys’ bodies, needing surgical genital mutilation and hormone treatments to suppress puberty and the development of masculine traits.

This, combined with Democrat programs and policies that erode the importance of men — and especially fathers — in society, has created a witch’s brew of social ills.

The Left treats aggression as a disease to be cured, but aggression is a trait, not a behavior. If aggression is channeled into bullying as a child and domestic abuse as an adult, then that aggression has become anti-social and criminal. But if that aggression is channeled into protecting and defending the weak, then it should be applauded and encouraged.

But when you declare that men are “monsters to be constantly feared” (tweeted by a NYT writer), you are teaching women that the other half of the human race are, by their very nature, inhuman, evil creatures. And what does this do to boys? It creates men who are either feminized, weak, and self-loathing, or men who are angry and resentful at being declared evil from birth.

This view of men as monsters also makes it nearly impossible for women to see men in a loving, healthy light, and that has a direct impact on society as a whole. What woman in her right mind would make a lifetime commitment to a monster?

And deprived of any identity as a husband, father, protector, and provider, young men now increasingly shun marriage in favor of cohabitation. Despite claims that this makes no difference, cohabitation is a recipe for failed marriages and misery.

Is it any wonder so many of the mass shooters of the last decade or more are socially awkward, outcast, angry young men without fathers in their lives? We’ve known for decades that the lack of a father in the home is the single greatest predictor of criminal activity, yet we continue to denigrate, disparage, and dismiss manhood and fatherhood (try to think of a prime-time TV show where the husband/father is not portrayed as an adulterous lech or a hapless dimwit).

For thousands of years, across virtually every society and civilization, men have taken boys through rites of passage into manhood, teaching them how to be men, how to be husbands and fathers, providers, protectors, and defenders. Without a father, without this training and these rites of passage, boys are left aimless and angry, and their masculine traits, rather than being channeled into good and productive activities and behaviors, instead lead to crime, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide.

Speaking of masculine rituals, writer and academic Belinda Brown [noted(https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/women-can-make-children-but-only-men-can-make-men/), “Through this process, young men are inserted into a social order which transcends the particularistic concerns of their individual families. They are subordinated to the rules of their elders while their elders are the servants of a divinity which is representative of, and greater than, the whole. And yes, this is a patriarchy. But it is not a patriarchy which subordinates women. Rather, it is a patriarchy which tames and subordinates men].”

Or, as cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead noted, “Women make children, but only men can make men.”

The War on Men has resulted in declining birth and marriage rates, shorter life expectancies, and broken families.

If we want to achieve respect and equality for women, strong families, and a stable society, the solution is to raise strong, healthy men, rather than teaching men that they are defective women.