Boys of today are stuck in an ideological tug of war. On one side are those like Andrew Tate, who present narrow, rigid and often harmful archetypes of masculinity. One that values masculinity purely on what it provides, or in how it protects women. To many, it is a disposable, materialistic, and dehumanising view of masculinity; that ought to be consigned to the history books, rather than remixed and repackaged within the bombast of charismatic alpha male influencers. Such a topic has understandably become the latest “hot button” issue in political discourse. But Andrew Tate, and those like him, are not the only forces at play here. For another set of clambering hands has gotten hold of our boys, and yanks them in the opposite direction. This voice fills boys’ heads with a different kind of rhetoric; one that calls him a violent oppressor, a threat to women, “toxic”, problematic, and r*pist in waiting. To them, masculinity is something to be apologised for – and quite literally so. Something to be expunged. Or masculinity is ‘a prison’, I hear. This, and other gibberish, espoused by equally harmful, and no less narrow minded propagandists like @MattXIV. To me, whilst this second set of hands may boast a more fabulous manicure and set of nails; they are no less harmful than Tate’s. No less intent on turning boys into political footballs, to be kicked about for social media currency and clout. And so boys are pulled apart, used as pawns to sell expensive intervention strategies to schools, or as soapboxes, for annoying SJW acolytes. Boys – a group spoken about, but never too. A group told to be everything, other than themselves. So why is this happening? Who’s doing it? And why can’t boys… just be boys? What do you think? ~ 41% of boys Teaching tax masc  Images by Vadim Bogulov, Guillia Squillace

2024-11-04