A survey has found that only 2% of young British men consider themselves completely masculine, compared to 56% of older men. 42% of young British men have a negative impression of masculinity, compared to only 15% of middle-aged British men.
This is another slip down the ladder. It has happened more quickly in Britain than in the U.S. In the U.S. 42% of men still consider themselves completely masculine compared to only 28% in Great Britain.
I don't know exactly why the decline has been so dramatic. It possibly has to do with young men absorbing negative messages about men being oppressors, wife beaters etc. I think it's more likely, though, that a tipping point has been reached at which young men no longer see a masculine role for themselves in society and so close themselves off psychologically from that aspect of their nature.
I know the stats aren't exactly heart-warming, but it does mean that we traditionalists can position ourselves very clearly and positively in opposition to the liberal drift of society on this issue.
(Hat tip: Traditional Britain Group via Breitbart)
Hi Mark, I was just reading the following over at The Imaginative Conservative:
ReplyDelete"From Aquinas, 'Inloving God, therefore, these things must be given to God; i.e.,
your intention,
your will,
your mind, and
your valor.'
I love this way of reading Scripture (Matt 22:37). It allows us to affirm “spes in virtute” with both Tacitus and Thomas Aquinas. To be precise: “In valor, there is hope;” namely, the hope that our virtue may be fully complete. To express the thought another way: it is as men of valor that we will be all we can be."
Interestingly the movie Act of Valour used the Tacitus quote (In valour there is hope) at one point, prompting the author to research it. The full article is well worth the read.
It is easy to see how men going to war can fulfill a valorous role and be wholesome, masculine characters. It got me thinking, how does the non defence man gain a sense of putting valour to use in order to fulfill his sense of manliness? Correctly or incorrectly, one conclusion I reached is that a man truly can become a man when he operates in service to others: public service, marriage, teacher, mentor, father, etc.
It is a sense of sacrifice to serve others, and I think in this day and age of the Ubermensch, we love ourselves but not our neighbours; so why would we want to serve them.
The modern man, in my opinion, is avoiding this function for it is akin to putting his head above the parapet to expose himself to the PC scourge. In hunkering down (avoiding marriage, teacher roles, public service, etc.) modern man is leading an unfulfilled life.
Obviously feminism is one of several factors bringing this to fruition. Certainly it is not the sole cause.
I think, this is where man as oppressor and builder of the Patriarchy (according to the 2nd wave feminists) is fundamentally a misnomer, a miscasting of men in family roles. If my trajectory of thought is correct, husbands primarily operated in service to wives and their families; not as oppressors and jailers as the feminists would have us believe. I think too many men believe these lies and are so reduced to unfulfilled men.
For me, becoming a husband then father, really added a sense of purpose to my life. Becoming a good husband and father, teacher and mentor to my children as they grow up, has really edified me. I no longer question my manhood as I did when younger.
I think this is a large part of manliness.
This is a thought in progress, so I think the post has meandered a bit and could probably do with refining and fleshing out. But anyway...
Matt, it's a good comment that could be usefully fleshed out. I agree with you about hunkering down and how this leads to an unfulfilling life. I agree too about how men operated in service, though to work well this has to be understood right.
DeleteI'd love to see a racial breakdown of this survey. I strongly suspect that if you looked only at white American males the figures would be almost as depressing as the British ones.
ReplyDeleteI had the same thought, but if only 2% of young men in Britain identify as completely male it means that the problem must also exist amongst immigrant groups as well.
DeleteThis is not surprising really. Masculinity has been effectively characterised as dysfunctional, violent, prejudice behaviour that men need to deconstruct for the good of society. That is their new role, confined as it is in relation to the Other (feminised society). I simply do not believe there is lack of opportunity for young men to positively express their masculinity in society. This is a cruel lie propagated by the media and academics. The hateful rhetoric of decades of feminism and pop-culture has served to obscure and hide these opportunities from young men and thus bring them low.
ReplyDeleteThese days, unless a boy gets a sense of positive masculinity from a father or a close mentor, where will this pedagogical influence come from? Schools? (lol!) Television? (even worse!) Art & literature? It's all under siege - the aim being to expel the heterosexual white man, architect of colonialism and all the world's ills, from any positive role in shaping the society he inhabits. The contemporary refrain is that his time has passed. He should relinquish all his power and step aside to make way for a hodgepodge of coloured persons who will waste no time creating a perfect utopia of equality and fairness. Why would a young man invest significant energy in a society that sees him way?
The alt-right gives me some hope. It's often coarse, somewhat misguided and confused, but it offers no quarter to the passive aggressive nastiness of the left and its legions of useful idiots. When the left and globalism have been left weak and lame, then there is space to move forcefully into the institutions of learning and culture and start to undo the worst of what has transpired under the left's dominance.