Was discussing the noble ideals of Catholic manhood recently with trusted Okie Trad friend over super fresh Friday night fish (at must visit White-river Fish Market in T-town), and he praised a new book he was reading on the subject by another relatively new to Oklahoma Okie Trad Sam Guzman of the widely followed Catholic Gentleman blog. The discussion got my inner wheels turning lately thinking about the daily endeavor of being a Catholic man in today’s culture.
It has to be admitted by even those on the Left that entertainment media, music, and pop culture in many of its forms has successfully spread the message that men in their past, traditional Christian roles of monogamous husband, primary breadwinner, leader of the family, disciplinary and self-sacrificing father, masculine in physical size and tone of voice, is by those measurements a threat to society and individuals everywhere.
Even if that man is as meek and mild as St. Joseph, known for those virtues and his daily habit of being a “quiet man,” or perhaps especially if he is of such moral or psychological temparement, then he is often portrayed as a weakling misfit with bottled up anger. Meekness, esprcially seen in men, like any Christian virtue, is convoluted by the modern today as something not only repulsive but a social and always potentially physical threat.
Unfortunately the default for some male believers is to feed into the narrative of the authoritarian, macho, bigoted a**hole. The ideal of being genuinely authoritative in one’s leadership roles especially over the family as its divinely instituted head, of a level of masculinity according to the physical and psychological design God have you, and the biblical call not only to charity but civility in public society, has been set aside. By some.
I don’t myself set aside efforts to improve a man’s physical appearance, status, personal hygiene, self-confidence, and social standing especially in the world of work. All of those good traits help promote civility, order, and stability. Grace builds on nature, so a man should take care of himself.
But again we feed into the narrative of the liberal feminist, anti-man attitude if we spin our wheels day after day trying to compensate because the current culture, or lack of real culture, makes men in general out to be lazy, weak, irresponsible idiots. Unless maybe you’re a naturally Type A, pampadora hairstyle-sporting guy with six pack abs, who makes a solid six figure salary. And there’s nothing I can see wrong with any of that. But if said man focuses more on work than his family, spends more time at the gym than in the spiritual and moral education of his children, if he sexually objectifies women including his wife, then he makes men look as bad to society as the fat, lazy, alcoholic, low life.
If a man is short, fat, and bald, makes a lower income salary, say struggles with PTSD from serving in the military, is at best an “average Joe” with a blue collar job, with some malformed social skills,
who nonetheless morning after morning gets out of bed, pulls himself up by his boot straps, gets dressed, puts in an honest day of labor, and comes home every night to help his wife with the kids, spend consistent family time, and lead his family in their night prayers, then that guy, who many or most would on some level consider a loser, is in fact a true man. He is a badass Christian hero in the sight of God, the angels, and all people around him still in possession of their mental faculties and moral compass.
Run on sentence intended!
Well I’ll step off my soap box and get back to the grind. Lunch time is over. Over the hump, approaching the weekend!