Hypermasculinity Is Becoming a Real Problem
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For those who prefer to read, you can get to the mostly intelligible auto-generated transcript if you go over to the YouTube page, click “…more” then scroll down to just above the beginning of the comments. So it’s sort of buried, but it’s there.
I prefer to read, generally, but Gavin is articulate, and you do get a better understanding of his attitude via video.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
When I come across this hypermasculinity (maybe better termed ‘new Right masculinity’?) I can’t help but wonder if some of these guys aren’t a little insecure.
It reminds me so much of high school—when, like every other guy in school—I wanted to be a manly man. Looking back, the efforts a lot of guys put into trying to convince everyone of their superior manliness seem transparently desperate. I want to go back in time and tell them, “It’s OK guys. We believe you. Stop trying to prove it. You’re manly enough. You’re going to be fine.”
At some point, I “put away childish things,” and stopped caring about that.
Something I’d really love to see: Some of these champions of masculinity get in a cage match with King David, who fought giants but wasn’t embarrassed to play beautiful music, write poetry, cry openly, and even occasionally dance in an undignified way.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
It strikes me that a lot of what is seen as "hypermasculinity" is in reality distorted masculinity, where a need for basic strength is replaced by becoming a bodybuilder, and the need for masculine sexuality is replaced by promiscuity/being a cad. The latter difference is illustrated brilliantly by Roger Staubach's response to the question of whether he was jealous of Joe Namath's sexual conquests; "I assure you that I enjoy sex every bit as much as Joe does. All of mine just happens to be with one woman."
(or words to that effect)
I moreover think that the talk missed a key point about a lot of "Jesus is my boyfriend" music, which is that the lyrics are in the voice of a young, infatuated lady. There's one chorus that I hate with the lyrics "I need you.....", and to me it crosses the line between mere feminine infatuation to "I'd be getting a restraining order if someone was that desperate and clingy."
More or less, I see a lot of modern songs (and "In the Garden") as using a very different tone/genre than do the Psalms and other Biblical songs.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I have listened to a decent amount of Armen and he doesn’t come off as trying to project himself as a man’s man like a Driscoll or Wilson. I think he missed the mark on this one by a wide margin but a lot of worship music comes across that way to me.
The hypermasculinity stuff, at least as it appears in culture, seems like an over correction from men seeing the obvious wrongness of current views on gender and trying to correct without the indwelling Holy Spirit and God’s word to direct. It’s basically “whatever it is I’m again it!”
Unfortunately, the church apes the world far too much including in its extremes. Much prayer and a lot of robust biblical teaching is what the young men in our church need. Discipleship by mature godly men would also be a huge help.
Several years ago a young man in our church kept asking to show him how to be a man or something to that effect. I think he thought I was a manly man since I can build stuff, fix stuff, run heavy equipment and I have a beard. I told him he was already a man because that is what God made him and that being a man looked different for different people and it wasn't about fitting a stereotype. What we really need is to be godly men and that means listening to Jesus when he says, "if you love me keep my commandments." Then applying the most important commandments of loving God with your all and loving your neighbor as yourself.
The whole case is interesting as a study in what is biblically masculine vs. what is culturally/traditionally masculine. I haven’t read Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, but there’s at least one valid point in the title.
Somewhere along the line we got a lot of John Wayne into our concept of masculine gender.
So, about beauty… I think a whole lot of what we identify as masculine vs. feminine beauty is cultural. I mean it’s learned, not objectively there. We tend to think “pretty = feminine.” Why? And what is “pretty” anyway?
I have lots of plants in my home office/studio/etc. They don’t have flowers, but I’d be delighted if they bloomed. I know some would think that’s unmanly. I don’t care what they think. It makes me a little sad. If they won’t let themselves love flowers, it’s their loss.
I’m as against the “Jesus Is My Boyfriend” genre of songs as anybody, but whether tunes and harmonies are too pretty for their purpose is a super subjective thing. That doesn’t make it unimportant or unreal. I’m just saying a lot of that is fluid, and what you think you hear may be more generational or ethnic than anything else.
I’ve been working on a lot of sacred music lately, some of it for old neglected hymns. I do not try to make them sound masculine, but I do try to avoid the kind of pretty that goes better with a Jane Austin ball, than a poem about God’s unchanging love. Romance is beautiful, and I like a pretty tune (much the way I like a pretty flower), but the love of God is something huge and weighty, though it’s also emotional and beautiful.
I really don’t think feminine or masculine is all that relevant in sacred music, but trivial and light vs. weighty and important matters—especially in music made for the special purposes of congregational worship.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Something I’d really love to see: Some of these champions of masculinity get in a cage match with King David, who fought giants but wasn’t embarrassed to play beautiful music, write poetry, cry openly, and even occasionally dance in an undignified way.
You know I look at David's early years (mighty men of valor) and it sounds a lot like The Godfather. He's demanding money for "protection."
Use your abilities and gifts to do what God tells you to do.
More like mercenary work I think…. the “the protection racket.” The main difference is actual protection.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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