The war on men

Imagine that a group of students at a college wrote this to advertise an event:

“Femininity can be extremely toxic to our mental health, both to the people who are pressured to perform it and the people who are inevitably influenced by it. We would like to encourage discussion on how to openly talk about our emotions and our wellbeing, and how to engage in feminine identities in a healthy way. Relevant to this discussion is how femininity can harm our relationships with people and one’s ability to cope when relationships are difficult or end. We want to create a safe and open space where we can talk about femininity and its various intersections with our identities and experiences.”

How do you think the general student body and leftists outside the school would react? You’d see the word “misogyny” tossed around. You’d hear dire warnings about the “war on women.” Replace the word “femininity” with “masculinity” and you have an actual gathering of students at the Claremont Colleges in California who discussed why men being men is a bad thing.

One student described the group as mostly women (surprise!). Another student said there was a “common consensus” at the event that masculinity “is harmful both to those who express it and those affected by it.” What harm are they referring to, exactly?

We all know, even feminists, that men are, for the most part, stronger than women. Generally, they take more risks, speak less, and are less emotional. Men and women have observable physical and behavioral differences. Despite the feminist line, men are the builders and providers. And thank God for all those differences. These aren’t societal constructs—they are based in biology, and they complement and compensate for the physical and mental aspects of women.

Every man, woman, and child is a sinner. There is nothing inherently “toxic” about masculinity or femininity. We sinners sometimes use these distinctions to our advantage for evil and for good. Despite the transgender nonsense, people know—they know—that we remain the sex assigned to us, no matter how much secularists and leftists lobby the government to penalize us for having the nerve to contradict them.

A man’s masculine characteristics are God’s design for His male creatures.

A man’s masculine characteristics are God’s design for His male creatures. God made two sexes for different roles and functions in the world and in relationships. And the marital relationship reflects Christ’s relationship with His church. A husband, the head of his family, is to love his wife as Christ loves His church. That is a powerful parallel that stresses how important these roles are and how much we rely on Christ to love as He loves. But a husband, like his wife, is a sinner and can abuse his authority. Our desperately wicked hearts are the problem, not God’s created order.

I hope men will push back against this anti-male tide, just as Christians have to push back against our diminishing freedom to live as Christians in all aspects of our lives.