Summary: Note: This isn’t an intellectual paper<br> written with the expectation that intellectuals will intellectualize my<br> intellect and reduce said intellect into shards of insecurity and shame. It’s<br> just my view and my experiences. You can take it or you can leave it, but your<br> - or anyone else’s - attempts at invalidating me and my experiences isn’t a<br> part of my process. That’s all yours.<br> <br> <br> <br> I didn’t grow up in today’s Information Age. In fact, I grew<br> up in rural New Mexico at a group home for “at-risk” children. My parents ran<br> the place and I was just a staff kid who got in everyone’s way a lot. But I was<br> observing and paying attention...always. When I was young, only boys were<br> considered “at-risk” and, as such, I grew up at a boy’s ranch in rural New<br> Mexico during the 70s and 80s. While I admit that it was a simpler time, I make<br> no claim that the issues that I faced are to be easily dismissed as simple. I<br> faced the same basic issues that kids face today, I just faced those issues<br> without the internet, without “safe spaces”, without “gun free zones”, without<br> political correctness, without warning labels on everything and without the<br> fierce and ill-informed mob of internet “experts” and well-meaning Christians hell bent on righting society’s<br> wrongs and without social justice warriors cowardly labeling everything that<br> they don’t like as something to be seen as awful. There was no “violent speech”<br> or “political correctness” or “toxic masculinity”. We (society) made all of those<br> up as a part of an agenda that doesn’t have the courage to do what all<br> righteous agendas seem to do; honestly identify itself. This new agenda can<br> best be described as the “woke” movement. “Woke” is yet another term that was<br> born out of pop culture but every bit as fictitious as the other terms<br> previously mentioned. As defined by Merriam-Webster – Woke: aware of and actively<br> attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social<br> justice) <br> <br> <br> <br> As I was growing up, men were expected<br> to be proud providers and protectors. Men were also expected to be<br> self-sufficient; especially emotionally. In addition, men were expected to be<br> good at a lot of things and exceptional at one or two things. Men were expected<br> to be, or at least appear to be, unafraid. Men were expected to express their<br> emotions with acts of service and courage for their loved ones; particularly<br> women and especially their spouse. Contrary to popular belief, I was not raised<br> with the expectation of not talking about my feelings. I was just taught not to<br> talk too much about love, fear and emotional pain. Thankfully, having 3<br> daughters forced me to evolve past that commitment to shield the world and<br> those around me from my vulnerability.<br> <br> <br> <br> Then along came “toxic masculinity”.<br> This is another one of those made up, social justice terms with an origin that<br> is less easily dismissed. Abusers, pedophiles, criminals, “alpha male dude<br> bros”, malcontents, anti-socials and narcissists are all at the root of “toxic<br> masculinity”. In reality though, these are such a limited and easily avoided<br> part of the population that the term “toxic masculinity” had to be expanded and<br> applied to anyone who isn’t, at worst, gender neutral and, at best, gender<br> fluid. Eventually, the definition was simplified to just be a convenient label<br> for those who aren’t “woke” Anyone who leans towards traditional<br> masculinity or who is Christian or who admits that they, as Eric Church puts it,<br> “Don’t like to fight, but ain’t scared to bleed” is labeled as being a purveyor<br> of “toxic masculinity” and a barrier to society’s overall progress and success.<br>
