Free Republic

U.S. - As society becomes increasingly dominated by nerds, hipsters, and computer programmers, people have fixated on what they think is our biggest problem: masculinity. "It's just toxic and causes nothing but problems," said Elisha Mcewen, a vegan activist and no threat whatsoever to spiders or tight jar lids. "I was sharing my feelings on masculinity with other men in my drum circle, and we all agreed that if we ever encountered masculinity, we would run far away." Masculinity is said to have in the past been the cause of such things as violence, war, bullying, defeating the Nazis,...

Holding the view that masculinity negatively impacts one’s behavior is associated with lower mental well-being, according to a new study of more than 4,000 men. The findings shed light on the relationship between societal perceptions of masculinity and individual mental health, challenging previous notions that masculine attitudes are inherently harmful or detrimental. The study was published in the International Journal of Health Sciences.For decades, masculinity has been a topic of both public and academic debate. Historically, traits like being active, dominant, and self-contained were synonymous with masculinity. However, from the 1980s, there was a notable shift. Masculinity began to be...

Many leading Republicans and conservatives want someone other than Donald Trump to run for President in 2024. But this judgment requires an assessment of Trump’s vices and virtues in the context of our current political and cultural circumstances, as well as an assessment of other prospective Republican presidential candidates. Tom Klingenstein, Chairman of the Claremont Institute, explains Trump's Virtues.

After MeToo, a regressive vision of masculinity became increasingly popular. Here’s a guide.More than five years ago, the MeToo movement exploded and our culture shifted. But what actually changed? This project seeks to reexamine the era by asking how it will alter the lives of the next generation. One of the consequences of the revelations that many prominent men behaved poorly in private was a very public effort to grapple with the whole concept of masculinity. Boys have long been mired in a well-publicized and seemingly endless “crisis.” But MeToo raised another question: Who would speak to these men? Over...

In an Instagram post on Thursday, Green Beret combat veteran and dad of three Nick Freitas shared with his followers a 2017 WRTV Indianapolis interview with Jack Reynolds, a pedophile who targeted children in the 1980s and spent 12 years in prison for it. In the interview, Reynolds was asked what “characteristics” he “looked for in children before molesting them.” Reynolds responded by saying it was a child’s family that mattered more than the actual child. “If I thought the father was a threat, I would not approach the child,” he said. Freitas said this revelation means a few things...

America, your 45th President needs you to stand up for what is right. During the golden era of The Greatest Generation, a work of art called The Philadelphia Story was created. When Katharine Hepburn said, "I was guilty straight off until I was proven innocent." Cary Grant commented, "Downright unAmerican if you ask me." In the modern world of suffocating political correctness, far too many men are now "guilty straight off" In 2018 President Trump described this modern phenomenon by saying, " My whole life I have heard you are innocent until proven guilty. But now you are guilty until.proven...

As American men continue to struggle, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff wants to use his platform to denounce so-called toxic masculinity. Emhoff this past week told MSNBC that there’s too much “toxicity” in masculinity these days, an issue he’s spent “a lot” of time thinking about. “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,” the 58-year-old said. “You’ve got this trope out there where you have to be tough, and angry, and lash out to be strong,” Emhoff continued. “I think...

First Gentleman Douglass Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, criticized “toxic masculinity” in an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart conducted Tuesday. 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...

[Video] Your top local headlines for Wednesday, January 25, 2023. HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -- A hero has emerged from a shooting in Waikiki that happened earlier this month. https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/01/07/police-respond-apparent-shooting-waikiki/ Marine Corps Sgt. Amed Issa said he was in a bar when shots were heard from outside on Lewers Street on Jan. 6. Issa said he thought someone was trying to enter the bar with a gun, so he followed his instincts and ran towards the sound of shots. That’s where he saw gunmen firing at a downed victim. After the two suspects fled, Issa began to treat the victim who was...

DENVER — Former Denver Broncos defensive lineman Derek Wolfe posted on his Instagram account Thursday that he had killed a large mountain lion “wreaking havoc” in a rural Colorado neighborhood. Labeling the kill “predator control,” Wolfe said he stalked and killed the big cat that had already killed two dogs and was living under the porch of a resident in the undisclosed neighborhood.

Joe Scarborough's masculinity is so fragile that he needs to repeatedly brag about his toughness on national TV. Back in June, we caught Scarborough boasting that he would beat up Capitol tourists if he caught them taking pictures. The subject today was Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance. At a recent Trump rally with Vance in Ohio, the former president told the crowd “J.D. is kissing my ass he wants my support so bad." Scarborough chose to open his Morning Joe show on Tuesday with a long rant about how he wouldn't tolerate anyone who tried to "emasculate" him.Get the rest...

Dr. Warren Farrell is a political scientist, activist, speaker, and author of The Boy Crisis. He has been interviewed by Oprah, Barbara Walters, Tucker Carlson, Peter Jennings, and many others. Dr. Farrell conducts communication workshops, and his writings have been frequently featured in The New York Times. In this episode, Dr. Farrell and I discuss issues that lead to mass homicides committed by young men. We also talk about child-rearing and boundary enforcement, discriminating between male competence and male power compulsion, and the importance of recognizing and rewarding a father’s contributions to their children’s development. Dr. Farrell and I also...

Days after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, staffers at Men as Peacemakers, a Minnesota group that works with students to break down gender stereotypes and reduce violence, checked in with participants to see how they were feeling. The students, who were mostly white, mirroring the state’s demographics, talked about lockdown drills they had practiced in school, but their responses were not very emotional, said Serrano Robinson, the group's youth restorative program coordinator. The mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24 that left 19 children and two teachers dead “sadly seemed kind of normal” to them, he said....

Men who are feminine? Why are men so soft? Effeminate men sin? Video is 40 minutes long, might offend those with woke pronouns

For three years, the wife and I have been waiting. Last month it finally happened. The surgery happens in a few weeks, and we’re not taking any chances with the China Flu gumming things up. We’re quarantined. Going nowhere, seeing no one, groceries delivered—the whole enchilada—toughest of all, no movies. So I haven’t seen Top Gun: Maverick. But based on what I’ve read and been told, it’s… …a masculine, pro-American, stridently non-woke blockbuster that has just blasted off to a $146 million opening weekend, which is well above predictions. Based on review after review, Top Gun 2 did the wisest...

After turning 2 years old, my son, Avishai, started demanding that he only wear tractor shirts, and my mind spiraled into darkness. I catastrophized worst-case scenarios, imagining a world where he fell for everything stereotypically manly. I envisioned him on a football field, barreling through mega-muscled opponents. Imagined him waxing a sports car on a warm summer day. I have always judged other guys who seemed boxed in by masculinity, but 3 ½ years ago, when I became a stay-at-home dad, my bias skyrocketed. My son was born in Albany, New York, on the bedroom floor of the apartment I...

MSNBC host Joy Reid said Monday on her show “The ReidOut” described Fox News Host Tucker Carlson’s new series on men as a “hyper-masculinity flex” that is “blatant, fascist posturing.” Reid said, “Fox News host Tucker Carlson sure has tarnished masculinity on his mind. Wonder what that’s about? Remember he once said on his fake log cabin daytime show that COVID feminizes people. Now, a new trailer is out to promote his feature series, “The End of Men.” Or shall we call it an ode to men, a certain kind of man?”

Actor Sean Penn has commented on the perilous state of masculinity in the west, remarking that men shouldn’t have to become ‘feminized’ in order to show respect for women. The movie star made the comments during a sit down interview with The Independent. Penn was quizzed on a previous statement in which he asserted, “I don’t think that being a brute or having insensitivity or disrespect for women has anything to do with masculinity, or ever did. But I don’t think that [in order] to be fair to women, we should become them.” Asked to explain that comment, Penn responded,...

Actor Sean Penn is no champion of the conservative movement and there’s a good chance he never will be. But he does appear to agree with many of his political opposites when it comes to traditional gender roles. The “Mystic River” alum is unhappy with men becoming more feminine and wishes the trend would reverse. “I am in the club that believes that men in American culture have become wildly feminized,” Penn told UK-based inews.co while promoting his new movie, “Flag Day.” “I don’t think that being a brute or having insensitivity or disrespect for women is anything to do...

Statistics show that black males are disproportionately getting in trouble and being suspended from the nation's school systems. Based on three years of participant observation research at an elementary school, Bad Boys offers a richly textured account of daily interactions between teachers and students to understand this serious problem. Ann Arnett Ferguson demonstrates how a group of eleven- and twelve-year-old males are identified by school personnel as "bound for jail" and how the youth construct a sense of self under such adverse circumstances. The author focuses on the perspective and voices of pre-adolescent African American boys. How does it feel...