THE COLUMN: In Praise of 'Toxic Masculinity'

Like a dutiful submissive, "Second Gentleman" Doug Emhoff—husband of the soon-to-be-former vice president—recently went on MSNBC with journalist Jonathan Capehart to discuss a topic neither of them seems to know much about; to wit, genuine masculinity. In this, both males ("men" would be too strong a word) are thoroughly representative of our current, emasculated era:

JONATHAN CAPEHART, MSNBC: A moment ago I asked you about gender roles. I want to dive in even deeper on that. Can we just talk about masculinity for a moment? Has being second gentleman changed your view of perceived gender roles and what it means to be a man?

DOUGLAS EMHOFF, SECOND GENTLEMAN OF THE UNITED STATES: Oof. This is something I have thought about a lot, I've spoken about a lot. There's too much of toxicity -- masculine toxicity out there, and we've kind of confused what it means to be a man, what it means to be masculine. You've got this trope out there where you have to be tough, and angry, and lash out to be strong.

I think it is just the opposite. Strength is how you show your love for people. Strength is how you are for people and how you have their back and how you stick up for other people and pushing up and out against bullies. And that's what I believe it is. So every time I can speak against this toxicity -- we are seeing it with our younger people, we're seeing it in our discourse and politics, in the media you are seeing it as it relates to so many of the issues we are pushing back on, so I think it's a problem and I am going to continue to use this platform every time I get to speak out against this toxic masculinity that is out there.

By equating his Eloi view of maleness with the bestial ferocity of the Morlocks, Emhoff establishes a typically Leftist false premise: that males are innately predatory bullies whose basest instincts are irremediable. "You've got this trope out there where you have to be tough, and angry, and lash out to be strong." It never occurs to him that a real man is one who has those qualities but keeps them in check. It never crosses his mind that there are times when "toxicity" is precisely what's called for in order for men to protect their lives, their women, their children, their possessions, and their nations, as real men are obligated to do. To a real man, a bully is not "tough" but contemptible, and never to be admired.

As Col. Jessup says in A Few Good Men:

I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom... You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall -- you need me on that wall. We use words like "honor," "code," "loyalty." We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather that you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand the post.

Recall that Col. Jessup is meant to be the villain here, and yet that speech, so memorably delivered by Jack Nicholson, has turned out to be the high point of the movie, the "cheer moment." Because even the most liberal audience member (including the screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, and the director, Rob Reiner) understands somewhere, deep down, that Jessup is right. 

Herewith, I offer Emhoff and Capehart an excerpt from my 2020 bestseller, Last Stands:

There is no sanitizing it: war is in fact, to use the voguish term, “toxic,” in the sense that killing and the inflicting of severe physical pain is precisely its point. No one in his right mind would willingly engage in it were it not for a host of other factors, some of them genetic and sexual, some spiritual, some psychological; some vain, and some base, and some entirely unknown, even to the warriors themselves. And yet, from the dawn of recorded history, man have felt the need, the obligation, and the duty to take up arms against an enemy and fight for what they believed in, whether the defense of territory or in conquest, rapine, and plunder. Noble or base, it does not seem to matter.

At the same time, it is quintessentially masculine; there are no reliable accounts of nations of women warring against other women with spear, pike, hatchet, sword, bayonet, carbine, machine-gun or nuclear weapon. When war breaks out, as it inevitably does, fastidiousness goes out the window, and – in particular when the fight is defensive and dire –men, not women, are called to arms. That they go, fearful but generally unflinching, is a continual wonder, but is also a “celebration” of masculinity – which, in its essence, is simply another word for duty, honor, and country. In the view of the demon god Thanatos, women are born to give birth, to provide the next generation of cannon fodder; in the view of the priapic god Eros, women are born to provide the next generation of heroes.

Stop whining and stand to post.

None of this is diminishment. Rather, it is complementary. The sexes are different. A country whose women lose their virtue and whose men lose their nerve – the Soviet Union is the most recent example of this historical truth – soon vanishes into history. When every man is a petitioner, a lackey, or a slave, and every woman a whore, that country is finished. A land of “strong” (i.e. in defiance of previous social norms with no immediate consequences, or even opposition) women and weak men is a dead country.

Contemporary pacifists and feminists will argue that war is the result of “toxic masculinity,” and that in a female-dominated world disputes will be amicably settled by tribal councils of conciliation and jawboning. Why, then, are contemporary feminists so adamant about women in the military?

The problem with capons like Emhoff and Capehart is that having led lives of pampered luxury (lawyer, journalist), the idea of an existential struggle is utterly alien to them. Heedless of any consequences, they "advocate" for causes with no skin in the game. Even with the barbarians at the gates, they throw around words like "justice" instead of honor; pride themselves on "removing barriers" instead of celebrating adherence to a moral code; and obsessing about "gender roles" instead of embracing loyalty.

And when the barbarians break through—as they inevitably will when both the walls and the defenders are unmanned—they'll be handing out business cards right up to the moment when the axe falls. Only then will they understand, fleetingly, just how valuable "toxicity" really is, and what it means to be on the receiving end of it.

Best of 2022: 'Forget Guns, Whatever Happened to Men?'

The year of Our Lord 2022 was a good one for us here at The Pipeline, having seen the launch of our weekly Substack column; the release of our first book, Against the Great Reset: Eighteen Theses Contra the New World Order; and the publication of a lot of excellent content from our wonderful group of contributors. Our final selection proved to be one of the most-clicked articles of the year, and seems as timely now as it was then, if not more so. 

Forget Guns. Whatever Happened to Men?

Michael Walsh, 31 May, 2022

The Uvalde school shootings, coming as they did just before Memorial Day, have thrown into high relief one of this country's most vexing problems. No, it's not guns, even "military-style" guns, to use a term that has no meaning except apparently to journalists—who should also brush up on the meaning of "semi-automatic" while they're at it but probably won't. Guns have been a part of American society since the Pilgrims shot their first turkeys, and have served the country well throughout its history. That some of them have been used in the commission of crimes by criminals hardly outweighs their usefulness to the founding and maintenance of the Republic. Just ask Sergeant York.

The perfect cannot be the enemy of the good. A disarmed domestic society is not something devoutly to be wished for. In any case, what the gun-grabbers are really aiming for is not "gun control" or "common sense" gun laws but confiscation and abolition. And with nearly 400 million firearms in the country, and gun ownership widely popular, that is not going to happen as long as the Second Amendment is the law of the land. In the meantime, see what just happened in Canada, which is now completing its post-Covid descent into a fascist tyranny:

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced the introduction of new legislation to further strengthen gun control in Canada and keep Canadians safe from gun violence. Bill C-21 puts forward some of the strongest gun control measures in over 40 years. These new measures include:

  • Implementing a national freeze on handguns to prevent individuals from bringing newly acquired handguns into Canada and from buying, selling, and transferring handguns within the country.
  • Taking away the firearms licenses of those involved in acts of domestic violence or criminal harassment, such as stalking.
  • Fighting gun smuggling and trafficking by increasing criminal penalties, providing more tools for law enforcement to investigate firearms crimes, and strengthening border security measures.
  • Addressing intimate partner violence, gender-based violence, and self-harm involving firearms by creating a new “red flag” law that would enable courts to require that individuals considered a danger to themselves or others surrender their firearms to law enforcement.

Luckily, here in the U.S., "shall not be infringed" has a meaning that is clear to everyone who speaks English, even Supreme Court justices and emotive half-wit Connecticut senators who shamelessly exploit dead children for their own political purposes. Gun confiscation from overwhelmingly law-biding legal gun owners makes about as much sense as locking down the healthy during a relatively minor viral epidemic. Oh wait...

No, the fault, to paraphrase Shakespeare, is not in our guns but in ourselves, and specifically in our men. For half a century masculinity has been under concerted attack in this country—fish, bicycle is one of the more benign forms, although still passive-aggressively hateful—until today it has been deemed "toxic" by the harpies of fourth-wave feminism and their very strange bedfellows in the QWERTYUIOP+ brigades. The unsurprising result has been the diminution and removal of genuine masculinity from the public square— even in the military, which now prizes women and trans-wokeness over men—and its replacement with sundry culturally unacceptable substitutes.

Chief among the missing males have been fathers: real, biological, spiritual, emotional, disciplinary fathers. Not "baby daddies," to use the ghetto term that has percolated its way up and into the larger culture. Not transient sperm donors, who wouldn't exist in the first place without trampy women to enable them. Not semi-functioning biological males embedded in the transgressive woke community who take an "X" for the team. But real men, who not only take responsibility for their children but impart responsibility to the next generation, especially to their sons...