By Dr. Alex McFarland for TOWNHALL
The modern crisis of manhood did not emerge in a vacuum. Western culture has long struggled to define what masculinity should look like in a society increasingly suspicious of authority, tradition, and even biological distinctions between men and women. The tragedy is not merely that masculinity has been criticized, but that godly manhood has been abandoned altogether — first by progressive cultural movements, and now by the reactionary excesses of the manosphere.
For much of Christian western history, manhood was tied to duty, sacrifice, courage, restraint, and moral leadership. A man was expected to protect women and children, provide for his family, honor God, and carry himself with humility. Chivalry may be imperfectly lived, to be sure, but it represented a moral ideal rooted in timeless Biblical teaching: strength of body and soul, placed in service to others. Masculinity was not understood as domination, but as responsibility.
Modern feminism (and wokeness, in general) treats traditional masculinity not as a virtue to refine, but as a pathology to dismantle. Boys are increasingly taught that assertiveness is dangerous, leadership is oppressive, and innate male instincts must be suppressed. Regardless of what may have been the original academic intent behind the phrase “toxic masculinity,” the term has become a cultural slur for demonizing ordinary male behavior.
Many young men internalized a simple message: masculinity itself is unwelcome. Public schools now pathologize male competitiveness and risk-taking — traits that, when disciplined properly, can become courage, resilience, and ambition.
