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this is a daunted life a man's podcast on your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
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Our guys before we get into any of the information that we're going to be giving you on today's
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podcast, we need to do a little bit of an update from last week's podcast number 59.
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So for podcast 59, we looked at the March for life for this year and pretty much we're
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going to do that every year. Every single year around the March for life, we are going
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to do an episode on abortion. But there was some news that broke that I talked about
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a little bit on episode 59 because I recorded it before it had actually happened. And so
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I didn't have time to get in there and make any edits to the recording before we went
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out live to you guys. But I wanted to go ahead and bring that up to you now. So remember
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when I was talking about Governor Cuomo of the state of New York and what the New York
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state Senate was doing, there was the potential that they were going to pass something called
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the reproductive health act, which is not aptly named at all. But anyway, after I recorded
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this podcast and about a day or two before it came out, New York state, the Senate of
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New York state rather, passed the reproductive reproductive health act. So it's a nice name.
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It's a knife piffy name. But let's actually look at what it accomplished. Essentially,
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the reproductive health act accomplishes three things for the state of New York. Number one,
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it expanded who can provide abortions in New York. So obviously we need more people that
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can do that. It's such a great thing for people. Great for women's rights. The second thing
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is it deletes abortion from the list of crimes in the state's criminal code, which is obviously
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a signal to anyone that's going to maybe try to overturn Roe v. Wade at any point. But
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then the third and the most damaging and the most damning is that it is allowing for the
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murder of unborn babies up until the day of birth. Now, I know a lot of you guys, especially
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if you follow our content, anything on social media, you've seen a lot about this. And really
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there's a lot of more right wing and conservative people that have talked about this a lot.
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Guys, I think this might be the turning point. I really think this might be the turning point
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for a lot of people because some people can kind of sanitize abortion. And we talked about
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that a lot. We've talked about it with the euphemisms that are used when describing an
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abortion. Oh, it's just, you know, getting rid of a pregnancy or terminating a pregnancy
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or, you know, it's health care, all these things. But everyone kind of knows what a baby looks
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like right before it comes out of the vaginal canal. Maybe because it's a baby, right? Maybe
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that's why it's so easy for us to imagine that. But when we think about someone being
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at 40 weeks and going into the doctor's office, they can even be dilated, like ready, their
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body is ready to give birth. But if they request an abortion in the state of New York, they
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can get it. And maybe the most crazy and satanic thing of all of this was Planned Parenthood
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of New York City. Of course, they posted a video of the Senate chamber, uh, right after
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this was approved in the New York State Senate. And the reaction after the bill passed was
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absolutely unbelievably reprehensible. So in it was very appropriate that this was on
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the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade Cuomo made sure of that. But the entire Senate chamber
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or at least that what you can see in the video, they stood up and cheered. They were literally
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hooting and hollering as if their team had made, you know, the buzzer beating basket
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or they just hit a walk off home run or something like that. They were literally clapping and
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clamoring women were crying because they were so excited. Literally that's what happened.
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And then you got Governor Andrew Cuomo, who's a self proposed Catholic, which I don't know
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how that's really going to work. He ordered that one World Trade Center be lit up pink
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to celebrate. I mean, literally just just think about that. They, they usually light
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up the Empire State building to celebrate, you know, holidays or or big things like that.
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They lit up one World Trade Center, this, this symbol of unity of the United States of America.
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They lit it up pink to celebrate this law. And even since then I've gotten a lot of different
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news sites have to do with abortion. There's a video that popped up and shout out to Reg
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Aldrich for shooting this video over to me. He's, he's one of our, uh, first and biggest
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followers of our content and a buddy of mine from college. He shot me this, uh, news story
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that I kind of heard about that I hadn't seen it, but there's a video floating around.
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Uh, it's about a one minute long video of an abortionist kind of describing the process
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and how well the woman did during the process. But he's got this pan and there's just like
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a bunch of stuff in the pan. And then when the camera zooms in, you realize what it is.
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That's the baby, but the baby's in several hundred pieces. So you can see a hand, you
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can see a foot. You can see all these things. He's just kind of running it under the water.
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And according to him, he's just making sure there's not something left in the mother. Right?
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Because if they accidentally left like a foot or a leg or something up in there, you know,
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it could get infected and could actually bring your harm to the abortive mother. Correct?
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Like, you know, that's kind of one of those things. But the most damaging thing is this
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guy holds up the baby's severed head for the camera. And don't worry guys, I included a
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link for it so you can go and watch it so you can see what evil really looks like. And
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this guy is just so callous in his description of what had happened. You know, he's talking
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to the woman at the end of the video like, Oh gosh, you did such a good job. You know,
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it went about how we, how we thought it would. The baby was at, you know, 20 weeks, he probably
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didn't use the word baby. I can't remember exactly what he used. He probably used some
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sort of, you know, sterilized medical term or something like that. But all this stuff
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has happened just since I recorded the last podcast. And then even today, I heard this
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yesterday before I recorded this podcast, the state of Virginia is moving to get abortion
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up to the 40 weeks, like up to the date of birth. I think up to this point, it has been
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struck down. Rhode Island, the governor again, another Catholic, she said that she would
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sign any bill and approve any bill that would approve abortion up to the day of birth. This
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is where we're heading guys. And it's only getting worse. And this isn't what this episode
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is about. But I'm going to continue bringing it to you. But here's the thing guys, is God's
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in control here. God got a sovereignty over all of this. But God will give America over
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to our sins. And if you don't believe me, let's just go to Romans one and I'll read passages
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18 through 25 for you. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
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and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known
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about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes,
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namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the
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creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For
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although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they
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became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be
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wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling
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mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the
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lust of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they
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exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than
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the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. That's the thing guys, God's going to give
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us over to this. And this isn't some sort of thing like, you know, rapture thing, like
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God's going to, you know, give America over to its sin and things like that. But let's
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not just pretend that God has shown favor to America for no reason. And for something
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like this to stand in this country, it's absolutely reprehensible. And we're going to continue
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talking about it. But guys, we're going to shift gears here. We're actually going to
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go in to this, which this episode, I've been looking forward to this episode, maybe longer
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than you guys have. I've had guys wanting me to talk about toxic masculinity pretty much
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since episode one of this podcast came out a couple of years ago, right? It's just one
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of those subjects that for a guy to be in the men's ministry space to talk about things
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in the way that I do, it's, it's crazy that's taken me this long. But I was always looking
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for the right time because that's the thing is, you know, we'll play an episode's out
8:06
a few weeks in advance. But then if something comes up in, you know, the news or in current
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events or if there's something else that kind of strikes my fancy, I'll I'll bring that
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into the fold. But toxic masculinity was always that thing out there among some other things
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that I'm going to get to at some point, but it just didn't ever make sense. But thank
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you to Gillette for putting out a commercial that made it make sense. So if you guys don't
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know what I'm talking about, where you been? Where you been? This Gillette commercial has
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absolutely gone viral because apparently Gillette, a company that makes razors mainly for men,
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they're getting into the whole virtue signaling game. But hey, it's led me to want to record
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this podcast and get it out to all you guys. So it's going to work out great for all of
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us involved. So what exactly did Gillette do for those of you that didn't know? Well,
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first of all, let's back up a little bit. Gillette obviously, a razor company, but something
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that y'all may not have known is Gillette's market share over the last several years has
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really been taken a dive. So they're, they're having a hard time with millennials and Gen
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Z markets. They're just not getting the traction that they've had with, you know, the boomers
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or Gen X or any of those types of markets. And so because they've been kind of getting
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cut out by the middle man, they've been cutting, been cutting, getting cut out rather by, you
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know, what's that $1 shave club, you know, stuff like that where you can just get razors
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sent to your house. So I guess in all of their infinite wisdom, all their C suite decided
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to get together and be like, you know, what would be awesome? Let's just go full social
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justice warrior and I bet we'll sell a toner razors. Like that sounds like a great idea.
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So what they did is they made a Super Bowl commercial, but they released it early. It's
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about a 92nd commercial or so. And this thing immediately went viral. So I've got the link
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for it here at the end. So if you haven't heard of this commercial or anything like that,
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you might go ahead and skip to the show notes in the links right there so you can take a
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look and then you can come back in and listen to what we're going to talk about. But what
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I'm going to do is I'm just going to go ahead and read to you what the narrator is saying
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throughout this video. So here we go. Is this the best a man can get? Is it? We can't hide
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from it. It's been going on far too long. We can't laugh it off. Making the same old
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excuses, but something finally changed. And there will be no going back because we we
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believe in the best in men to say the right thing to act the right way. Some are already
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are in ways big and small, but some is not enough because the boys watching today will
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be the men of tomorrow. So if you look at it just from the text, it doesn't seem that
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bad, right? But when you combine the narrator's audio with the visuals, it starts to go off
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the rails. So throughout this commercial, you're seeing them showing bullying, womanizing,
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kind of like, you know, objectifying women hashtag me to type stuff. You see an example
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of man's explaining of boys, rough housing. And they kind of show that all throughout.
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And so they're obviously trying to draw a dichotomy between, you know, the way men act
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and the way men should act, you know, as if they're, they're kind of making this happen.
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Interestingly enough, though, there's no trans men in this video. So maybe this isn't the
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episode to go into that. But I find that kind of interesting. If you're going to the full
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social justice warrior, you might as well have a guy with a beard wearing a dress or something
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like that. But let's digress just a little bit. The ending text, this is not the narrator talking,
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but the ending text that comes up in the video is the best a man can get. It's only by challenging
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ourselves to do more that we can get closer to our best. So this is virtue signaling of the
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highest order. I mean, that's exactly what this is. And here's the thing is you put out something
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like that. And there's a lot of things that kind of come out like this in our world. And
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nothing really happens. No one really looks at it. Or you might find a few fringe people that
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are looking at it, maybe, you know, a few thousand people looking at it or something like that.
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But this thing got out to a lot of people. As of the recording of this podcast, there's about
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28 million views on YouTube. But interestingly enough, about 1.3 million thumbs downs on the
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video for outpacing the thumbs up. So you don't really see that a lot with YouTube videos,
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especially ones that quote unquote go viral. So this thing has really been received rather
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poorly, which is hilarious, because they set out to make some huge statement, some grandiose
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thing. It's kind of blown up in their face a little bit. So here's the thing. If the Gillette
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team was going for publicity, I mean, they nailed it. I mean, Gillette, no one was talking about
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Gillette. You don't even think about Gillette until you go to Walmart and trying to pick out
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razors and their, you know, 80% of them are Gillette brand, right? I mean, but if they were going
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for lasting social change, I mean, they failed miserably. This is like significantly blown up
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in their faces, which, which is interesting and also very, very hilarious. But if they were going
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for regaining lost market share, which is what they're claiming, you know, this is a business
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claiming they're doing this for business reasons, but also to be socially relevant. I mean, I guess
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time will tell on that. I mean, I can say for me, I will be buying any Gillette products anytime
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soon. But if you buy Gillette products, who gives a crap? They're just razors. It didn't really matter.
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But if you want a boycott, I'm sure a boycott. I'm not calling what I'm doing a boycott. I'm just
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going to choose to buy other razors because I don't like being lectured to buy a bunch of morons in
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some boardroom somewhere that have nothing to do with me. But guys, really, the joke is on them.
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Because this whole commercial, they're trying to make it seem like men are terrible and everybody
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accepts of this type of manhood. And this is what modern masculinity and manhood is. But guys,
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good men already think the things that were shown in that video are stupid.
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They think those things aren't real masculinity. I mean, are there any guys out there that really
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think that bullying is like a good thing that we're all high five each other? Like, yeah,
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bullying, let's pick on the little guy or the little gal. Like, we don't think that way.
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You know, that that people are, do we think it's okay for men to purposely embarrass women by
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mansplaining? Well, what she was really trying to say, like, no one really thinks that's real.
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Like, we don't accept that in any way. But I will say this is there was one thing about the
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commercial that I felt was especially reprehensible that they showed a couple of boys roughhousing
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in the yard, right? You know, two similarly sized boys just, you know, wrestling around.
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And then they show this big, long clip of men saying, boys will be boys, boys will be boys.
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And it shows them all lined up at a bunch of grills, basically just looking like robots saying,
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boys will be boys. And I'm like, wait, were they, were they showing a couple of boys roughhousing
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in the yard? And presenting that as like, that was a bad thing. Like, this is an overall negative.
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This wasn't a bigger kid picking on a smaller kid. This was a couple kids just, you know,
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getting together and wrestling a little bit. I mean, what was it? What was a big deal? So I
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thought they missed a mark pretty much everywhere that you can miss the mark. But what I will say
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is this commercial has brought toxic masculinity back into the public discussion.
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And so what we decided to do here at Undaunted Life and on this podcast is that we're finally
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going to go into this topic. But this is really too big of a topic to go through one in kind of
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one episode. And I think that's maybe what's kept us from recording an episode on this for so long
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is because I mean, how do you even tackle this? There's literally so many facets to this. And
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it's just it was hard for me to kind of get my head around. Okay, how are we going to present
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this in a way that makes a lot of sense for people? So what we decided to do is we're going to do a
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two parter. So episode 60, the one you're listening to right now is going to be on toxic masculinity.
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And it's going to be a history of toxic masculinity. And then you'll have to come back next week for
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part two, which is going to be a future. So today in this podcast, what we're going to hope to do for
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you is give you a really good idea of what the history of toxic masculinity is. Okay,
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essentially, we're going to try to get you from where all this stuff, all the ruminations of this
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started. We're going to get you to today, kind of what's going on right now with the temperature
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of all this is right now. And then next week, we're going to look out in the future. We're going to
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try to forecast a little bit. And then we're going to try to see what we can do to give you guys hints
16:05
and ideas as to how we should operate going forward. So launching in right here, I want to go into
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a history of toxic masculinity. But when I was doing my research, it was very interesting to me and
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not really all that surprising that the roots of toxic masculinity were actually in something else.
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And that's something else is something called hegemonic masculinity. So hegemonic H E G E M O
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N I C hegemonic masculinity. And it was a very interesting deep dive. And I read a lot on this
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subject. But to be honest with you, and I think this is the second time I've done this on this
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podcast, Wikipedia actually did a pretty dang good job of distilling all this information down.
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And as I was reading through hegemonic masculinity and having it transition into toxic masculinity
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masculinity via Wikipedia, I felt like it did a really good job. It almost broke down like
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like a peer reviewed paper. Like that's what it felt like. And because everything that was all
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the statements that were made, it was backed up with other things in the bibliography. And you
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could go check it out. So what I'm going to do today is not only am I going to include this link
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so you can read the totality of this on your on your own. I'm going to read through this
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section that Wikipedia put out there because I think it's going to be really, really helpful
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for you guys to understand where this came from. And to be honest with you, this is the best place
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that kind of put it all together in one area. So we're going to go ahead and launch in right here.
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History of hegemonic masculinity. The concept of hegemonic masculinity was first proposed
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in field reports from a study of social inequality in Australian high schools in 1982. In a related
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conceptual discussion of the making of masculinities and the experiences of men's bodies. And in a
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debate over the role of men in Australian labor politics, these beginnings were organized into
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an article which critiqued the male sex role literature and proposed a model of multiple
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masculinities and power relations. This model was integrated into a systematic sociological
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theory of gender. The results, the resulting six pages in gender and power, apparently,
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that's a magazine of some kind, by R. W. Connell on hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity
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became the most cited source for the concept of hegemonic masculinity. This concept draws its
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theoretical roots from the Gramcian term hegemony, as it was used to understand the stabilization of
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class relations. The idea was then transferred to a problem of gender relations. Hegemonic
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masculinity draws some of its historical roots from both the fields of social psychology and
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sociology, which contributed to the literature about the male sex role that had begun to recognize
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the social nature of masculinity and the possibilities of change in men's conduct. This literature
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preceded the women's liberation movement and feminist theories of patriarchy, which also played
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a strong role in shaping the concept of hegemonic masculinity. The core concepts of power and
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difference were found in the gay liberation movement, which had not only sought to analyze
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the oppression of men, but also oppression by men. This idea of a hierarchy of masculinity
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has since persisted and strongly influenced the reformulation of the concept. Empirical
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social research also played an important role as a growing body of field studies documented
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local gender hierarchies and local cultures of masculinities in schools, male dominated
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workplaces, and village communities. Finally, the concept was influenced by psychoanalysis.
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Sigmund Freud produced the first analytic biographies of men and showed how adult
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personality was a system under tension and the psychoanalyst Robert J. Stoller popularized
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the concept of gender identity and mapped its variation in boys development. Then it goes into
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really a lot of detail into some of those different areas and by a lot, I mean a lot,
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a lot of great detail in some of those areas. But again, I just want to distill this down to kind
19:54
of give you guys some of the higher points and the higher nuggets. So we're gonna go ahead and move
19:57
on to the next section of this article called framework of hegemonic masculinity. The particular
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normative form of masculinity, that is the most honored way of being a man, which requires all
20:08
other men to position themselves in relation to it is known as hegemonic masculinity. Originally,
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hegemonic masculinity was understood as a pattern of practice that allowed men's dominance over
20:18
women to continue. In western society, the dominant form of masculinity or the cultural ideal of manhood
20:25
was primarily reflective of white heterosexual, largely middle class males. So you can see where
20:30
this is going. The ideals of manhood espoused by the dominant masculinity suggested a number
20:36
of characteristics that men are encouraged to internalize into their own personal codes,
20:40
in which form the basis for masculine scripts of behavior. These characteristics include violence
20:46
and aggression, stoicism, which is emotional restraint, courage, toughness, physical strength,
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athleticism, risk taking, adventure, and thrill seeking, competitiveness, and achievement and
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success. Hegemonic masculinity is not completely dominant, however, as it only exists in relation
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to non hegemonic subordinated forms of masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity is neither normative in
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the numerical sense, as only a small minority of men may enact it, nor in an actual sense as the
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cultural ideal of masculinity is often a fantasy figure, such as John Wayne or John Rambo. Hegemonic
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masculinity may not even be the commonest pattern in the everyday lives of men. Rather, hegemony
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can operate through the formation of exemplars of masculinity, symbols that have cultural authority
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despite the fact that most men and boys cannot fully live up to them. Hegemonic masculinity imposes
21:37
an ideal set of traits which stipulate that a man can never be unfeminine enough. Thus,
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fully achieving hegemonic masculinity becomes an unattainable ideal.
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Complicity to the aforementioned masculine characteristics was another key feature of the original
21:52
framework of hegemonic masculinity. Yet still, since men benefit from the patriarchal dividend,
21:57
they generally gain from the overall subordination of women. However, complicity is not so easily
22:03
defined as pure subordination since marriage, fatherhood, and community life often involved
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extensive compromises with women rather than simple domination over them. In this way,
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hegemonic is not gained through necessarily violent or forceful means, but it is achieved
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through culture, institutions, and persuasion. The interplay of gender with class and race creates
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more extensive relationships among masculinities. For example, new information technology has redefined
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middle class masculinities and working class masculinities in different ways. In a racial context,
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hegemonic masculinity among whites sustains the institutional oppression and physical
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terror that have framed the making of masculinities and black communities. It has been suggested that
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historically suppress groups like inner city African American males exhibit the more violent
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standards of hegemonic masculinity in response to their own subordination and lack of control.
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This idea of marginalization is always relative to what is allowed by the dominant group,
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therefore creating subsets of hegemonic masculinity based on existing social hierarchies.
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And this is kind of at the point of the article where we start to really see the rise of the
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phraseology and the thought process and philosophies behind toxic masculinity. So let's go ahead and
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go into that section here. Connell argues that an important feature of hegemonic masculinity
23:21
is the use of quote unquote toxic practices such as physical violence, which may serve to
23:26
reinforce men's dominance over women in Western societies and this was cited back in 2005. So
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basically back in 2005 is where we first start seeing the phrase toxic masculinity. Okay. Other
23:37
scholars have used the term toxic masculinity to refer to stereotypical masculine gender roles
23:42
that restrict the kinds of emotions allowable for boys and men to express, including social
23:47
expectations that men seek to be dominant, aka the alpha male, and limit their emotional range
23:52
primarily to expressions of anger. So now we're going to talk about toxic masculinity in psychology.
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Terry Cooper's defines toxic masculinity as the constellation of socially regressive male traits
24:04
that serve to foster domination, the devaluation of women, homophobia, and want and violence.
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According to Cooper's talks, toxic masculinity serves to outline aspects of hegemonic masculinity
24:15
that are socially destructive, such as misogyny, homophobia, greed, and violent domination.
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These traits are contrasted with more positive aspects of hegemonic masculinity,
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such as pride and one's ability to win at sports, to maintain solidarity with a friend
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to succeed at work or to provide for one's family. Toxic masculine norms are a feature of life for
24:36
men in American prisons, where they are reflected in the behavior of both staff and inmates. The
24:40
qualities of extreme self reliance, domination of other men through violence and avoiding the
24:45
appearance of either femininity or weakness comprise an unspoken code among prisoners, suppressing
24:51
vulnerable emotions is often adopted in order to successfully cope with the harsh conditions
24:55
of prison life defined by punishment, social isolation, and aggression. These factors likely
25:00
play a role in suicide among male prisoners. Bullying of boys by their peers and domestic
25:05
violence experience by boys at home can also be expressions of toxic masculinity. The often
25:10
violent socialization of boys produces psychological trauma through the promotion of aggression and
25:15
lack of intimate relations with others. Such trauma is often disregarded, such as the saying boys
25:20
will be boys with regard to bullying. Now we're going to talk about the health effects associated
25:25
with toxic masculinity, at least according to this article. Men who adhere to traditionally
25:29
masculine cultural norms, such as risk taking violence, dominance, primacy of work, need for
25:35
emotional control, desire to win, and pursuit of social status tend to be more likely to experience
25:40
psychological problems such as depression, stress, body image problems, substance abuse, and poor
25:46
social functioning. The effect tends to be stronger in men who also emphasize masculine norms,
25:51
such as self-reliance, seeking power over women in sexual promiscuity, or playboy behavior.
25:56
The social value of self-reliance has diminished over time as modern American society has moved
26:01
more for more toward interdependence. Both self-reliance and the cycling of emotional
26:06
expression can work against mental health, as they make it less likely for men to seek
26:10
psychological help or to possess the ability to deal with difficult emotions.
26:15
Preliminary research suggests that cultural pressure for men to be stoic and self-reliant
26:19
may also shorten men's life spans by causing them to be less likely to discuss health problems
26:23
with their physicians. Now we're going to talk about the men's movement and some of y'all that
26:27
listened to the Red Pill episode, you might recognize some of this. Some authors associated with the
26:32
myopoetic or mythopoetic men's movement have referred to the social pressures placed upon men
26:37
to be violent, competitive, independent, and unfeeling as a toxic form of masculinity,
26:42
in contrast to a real or deep masculinity that they say have been lost with modern society.
26:48
The academic shepherd Bliss proposed a return to agrarian as an alternative to the potentially
26:54
toxic masculinity of warrior ethic. Some examples of these movements include the men's rights,
26:59
movement, or the MRA, which is the main group in which men claim they claim to strive for equality.
27:04
Sociologist Michael Kimmel writes that Bliss' notion of toxic masculinity can be seen as part of the
27:10
myo or here's that word again, mythopoetic movements response to male feelings of powerlessness at a
27:17
time when the feminist movements was challenging traditional male authority. Thus Shepherd Bliss,
27:22
for example, rails against what he calls toxic masculinity, which he believes is responsible
27:27
for most of the evil in the world and proclaims the unheral to goodness of the men who fight the
27:32
fires and till the soil and nurture their families. Okay, guys, I know that took quite a bit. But
27:38
again, I distilled a lot of what that article went down into. I skipped over a whole bunch of
27:43
sections and I kind of distilled it down into that. And to be honest with you, if you were to listen
27:48
to something like that, you'd be like, man, we got to get rid of this toxic masculinity thing.
27:54
This is like an existential threat. I mean, you hear something like that and you hear so many
28:00
dangerous strings and threads that come through that and gosh, that's just got to be something
28:05
that's got to be taken care of, right? I mean, that's just something that every single one of
28:10
us should be talking about. I mean, this should be at the top of every politician's mind when it
28:14
comes to the laws that they're thinking about, you know, enacting for the country, right?
28:18
But guys, we just have to be real about something here. And I know for some of you, it probably
28:23
made you frustrated that I was even reading that, right? And you just hear these things and you know,
28:27
you get all these, all these just ideals that you don't agree with or ideals that just don't really
28:34
fit into what you think masculinity is. But there's a reality to this entire line of study.
28:39
And that's like something like math, toxic masculinity studies are possible only because
28:47
of the strength and sacrifice of sheepdogs, right? For those of you that don't know what
28:55
I'm talking about, obviously, if we go back to the book on combat, that's where you get the concept
28:59
of, you know, the wolf, the sheep and the sheepdogs and the sheepdogs are basically the ones that
29:03
that protect people, they protect the sheep from the wolf. And the thing about it is in America,
29:10
and let's just say the broader West, a bunch of alpha males got together in the early 20th century
29:17
and made sure that we could have stupid, ridiculous conversations about toxic masculinity in 2019.
29:24
Because guess what guys, you're listening to this podcast because you understand English,
29:29
which is a language that I'm speaking, because without those alphas, I would be speaking German
29:34
right now. And that is not a ridiculous stance for me to take. Because if a bunch of alphas from
29:41
the West didn't go over and put down evil socialist evil in the Nazi regime and take care of World
29:48
War one and World War two, there's no way that we would be living a life like what we're living
29:54
right now. Because we've had such relative peace, and I'm gonna specifically talk about the United
30:00
States here, but again, this is applicable to the entire West, we have so pushed to the fringes,
30:05
the idea of defensive country. And again, you're talking, you're listening to a guy right now,
30:10
that's not a veteran, right? So for my veterans out there, shouts out to you because you're no
30:14
matter what, you're gonna be a better man than I am, because you sacrifice for this country.
30:19
But for someone like me, I've never had to really think about war.
30:23
I mean, I never really had to think about what it would be like to leave my family behind,
30:27
to be potentially saying bye to my loved ones for the last time. I've never had to think about
30:32
those things. I've never had to think about what if a country attacks us like the Japanese did
30:37
in Pearl Harbor? Like, I'm in the car, and I'm immediately going to war. And like, and we're
30:42
taking care of business, right? And we're gonna, we're gonna set this right at least here on this
30:46
world, right? But we're so sterilized, listen, 1% of the American population actually serves
30:52
in the armed forces. And way less than a percentage of that are actually in the line of fire where
30:57
they could be taking an enemy, enemy bullet to the forehead, right? But because it's so sanitized,
31:03
we've been sanitized from the Iraq war, from Afghanistan, from what's going on in Syria,
31:08
from what's going on, on with Boko Haram, all over Africa, what's going on with those
31:11
individuals and those things, and the places where you don't even know that we're at,
31:14
is that we don't have to think about them on a regular basis. So for decades, we've had a bunch
31:21
of dorks that have been sitting around and thinking about, well, what's something that I can raise
31:27
hell about? Well, I don't really like the fact that all these alphas are around and winning all
31:34
the things and taking all the women. And you know what, let's just create gender theory.
31:38
I mean, just think about gender studies in the way that we understand it today has not been around
31:44
for a very long time, because there hasn't been that much latitude to be able to even contemplate
31:52
such things. Because life was so hard, surviving was so hard, right? And defending yourself against
31:59
these actual threats and even existential threats and all these different things was so
32:04
overwhelming to us. But for how many decades have we not had to do that? Is anyone listening
32:10
to this podcast have to go kill their food? Like you're constantly on the lookout for food because
32:15
you can't just like go to the grocery store and buy a can of soup and some meat at the deli,
32:20
right? I mean, life has gotten so easy for most of us. We're not defending the edges of our land.
32:26
You don't have a neighborhood watch that's like defending you against the neighborhood from across
32:30
the street. We're so soft. And because of that softness, we can sit around and think about stupid
32:36
crap like toxic masculinity. But here's the thing about it, guys, toxic masculinity is being pushed
32:42
by this feminist agenda. But also the feminist agenda is being pushed by a bunch of beta males.
32:47
And here's the thing about the beta males, guys, they have the loudest voice right now.
32:52
The beta males have the loudest voice right now, because they are emboldened by people that
32:59
align with the political left more of the liberal side of things. They're emboldened by the university
33:05
system. I mean, they're, they're also emboldened by the knowledge that alpha is like a lot of you
33:10
listeners out there right now, probably won't hurt them. I mean, just think about that. We live
33:15
in an era where people will say things online, go back to the episode of you mad bro, we were
33:19
talking about people that are way willing to flame and say these horribly horrific things online,
33:24
because they're not saying it to someone's face. That's the thing about guys is if you say
33:28
something that bad to a guy's face, you got to worry about the right hook, you know what I mean?
33:32
And so as I was thinking through this, I thought back to what we considered to be the best book
33:37
of last year, which is 12 rules for life by Jordan Peterson. And in rule number 11,
33:41
that's the rule called don't do not bother children when they are skateboarding.
33:45
I remember this section and I went back and got it. So I want to read it to you here,
33:48
because I feel like this is really appropriate to my point that the beta males have been given
33:52
too much of a of a megaphone here. So let me just read this section here. I'm cutting a few places
33:58
out and kind of splicing it together, but it's all in rule number 11. So here we go.
34:02
Children and father absent homes are four times as likely to be poor. That means their mothers are
34:07
poor too. Fatherless children are at much greater risk for drug and alcohol abuse. Children living
34:13
with married biological parents are less anxious, depressed, and delinquent than children living
34:17
with one or more non-biological parent. Children in single parent families are also twice as likely
34:23
to commit suicide. The strong turn towards political correctness in universities has exacerbated that
34:28
problem. The voices shouting against oppression have become louder, it seems, in precise proportion
34:34
to how equal, even now increasingly skewed against men, the schools have become. There are whole
34:40
disciplines and universities forthrightly hostile towards men. These are the areas of study dominated
34:46
by the postmodern Neil Marx's claim that Western culture, in particular, is an oppressive structure
34:51
created by white men to dominate and exclude women and other select groups successful only because
34:57
of the that that domination and exclusion. Consider this as well. In regard to oppression,
35:03
any hierarchy creates winners and losers. The winners are, of course, more likely to justify
35:09
the hierarchy and the losers to criticize it. I will repeat that because this is very important in my
35:14
point. The winners are, of course, more likely to justify the hierarchy and the losers to criticize
35:20
it. But one, the collective pursuit of any valued goal produces a hierarchy as some will be better
35:27
in some worse at that pursuit, no matter what it is. And number two, it is the pursuit of goals
35:32
that in large part lends life its sustaining meaning. We experience almost all the emotions
35:38
that make life deep and engaging as a consequence of moving successfully towards something deeply
35:43
desired and valued. The price we pay for that involvement is the inevitable creation of
35:47
hierarchies of success, while the inevitable consequence is difference in outcome.
35:52
Absolute equality would therefore require the sacrifice of value itself. And then there would
35:57
be nothing worth living for. We might instead note with gratitude that a complex, sophisticated
36:02
culture allows for many games and many successful players, and that a well-structured culture allows
36:07
the individuals that compose it to play and to win in many different fashions. It also, it is also
36:14
perverse to consider culture the creation of men. Culture is symbolically, architecturally,
36:19
mythically male. That's partly why the idea of the quote unquote patriarchy is so easily swallowed.
36:26
But it is certainly the creation of humankind, not the creation of men, let alone white men who
36:30
nonetheless contributed their fair share. European culture has only been dominant to the degree
36:35
that it is dominant at all for about 400 years. On the timescale of cultural evolution,
36:41
which is to be measured at minimum in thousands of years, such a time span barely registers.
36:46
Furthermore, even if women contributed nothing substantial to art literature and the scientists
36:51
prior to 1960 and the feminist revolution, which is not something I believe, then the role they
36:56
played raising children and working on the farms was still instrumental in raising boys and freeing
37:01
up men, a very few men so that humanity could propagate itself and strive forward. So guys,
37:07
obviously in that section, you could see a lot of what Jordan Peterson is talking about for any of
37:11
you that follows podcasts or any of his lectures or things like that. You see this similar vein
37:15
in a lot of things that he's saying, because it shouldn't really be this way. But just like
37:20
everything is apparently nowadays, it's very much so political. And here's the thing, toxic
37:25
masculinity is very much so a left versus right issue. So on the left, you have things like Vox
37:32
and salon and, you know, the New York Times and you basically liberals and Democrats and on the
37:37
right, you have Fox News and the Daily Wire and the National Review and Conservatives and Republicans.
37:42
And here's the thing, if you mentioned toxic masculinity and it's coming from the left,
37:46
it is absolutely the most reprehensible thing. It's an existential threat that we've got to take
37:50
out. It's all that kind of, you know, hyperbolic stuff I was talking about earlier. But you know,
37:54
what's interesting just as like a little side note, most of the people on the left like love
37:59
rap culture, right? I mean, remember Hillary Clinton in 2016 is like she was stumbling over
38:04
herself to get Jay Z and Beyonce to like come out and do like a concert for I think it was in like
38:08
Ohio or something like that. But the thing about it is, is there anything more misogynistic than rap?
38:14
I mean, is there anything more hashtag me too than rap music? And is it even worse that the
38:19
fact that a lot of these guys actually do some of the stuff and the songs that they say, right,
38:23
the things that they do to women and how they marginalize them? But then we don't ever hear
38:27
about that when we talk about toxic masculinity. I didn't see Hillary Clinton given Jay Z elect,
38:31
you know, a lecture when he went up on stage, she was up there trying to dance or whatever the
38:35
heck she was doing. But then on the right side of the issue, you know, they're talking about
38:38
masculinity, but where I feel like the right gets it wrong, if we can say that way, no pun intended,
38:43
but where the right gets it wrong is they just want to defend manhood, you know, wholesale.
38:48
And they don't want to have that conversation about what manhood should be. And guys, next week,
38:54
we're going to talk a lot about that. What manhood should be? What is a biblical definition of manhood?
39:00
What should you be teaching your sons right now? What should you be teaching your nephew? What
39:03
should you be teaching your little brother? Those are the things that we're going to talk about,
39:07
because the thing about it is, and I've seen this a lot in the in the age of Trump and the MAGA age
39:10
that we live in right now, there's a lot of people that are just really ready to go and they're trying
39:14
to defend them. I saw pastor after pastor after pastor, basically just shrug their shoulders and
39:19
say, boys will be boys whenever Donald Trump was talking about grabbing women by the pussy.
39:23
When he was talking about the affairs that he was having with women, you guys realize
39:27
Milani is his third wife, right? And he cheated on the first two with the next wife, right? Milani
39:33
was the mistress before she was the first lady, right? And so people are just all, you know, on the
39:38
right, they tend to go way too far and say, well, everything's acceptable. You know, if you bully,
39:42
it's not so bad, you know, if you mansplain, it's not so bad, you know, if you smack a woman on the
39:47
rear end as she's walking by, not so bad. But guys, there's a reality of what manhood and what true
39:53
masculinity actually looks like. So don't buy this nonsense that every form of masculinity is
39:59
toxic. Don't buy that. Don't buy that at all. And next week, we're going to drive that point home.
40:04
And we're going to use the help of some of our favorites to do that. So definitely be on the
40:09
lookout for that's going to come out next Thursday. And guys, this sums up the history of toxic
40:13
masculinity and where we are today. But if you want to know where we're supposed to go in the
40:17
future, come back next week. All right, guys, before we let you go, we're going to do a quick
40:21
resilience boost. As you know, by now, we are a men's ministry and our mission is to cultivate
40:25
manly resilience. And specifically, we do that by providing content like this podcast that for just
40:30
spiritual, mental and physical toughness. So today we're going to work on your mental resilience. But
40:33
also it's going to go into the spiritual side, especially with some of the first things that
40:37
we're going to leave for you. So the very first thing I mentioned how the Senate chamber in the
40:41
state of New York erupted in applause. So if you thought I was lying, I included a link to that. So
40:46
you can actually see the horrific video. And then also in equally or maybe more egregious video
40:52
about the abortionist that was holding up that severed head. So you can watch a minute. And so
40:57
some of you have never seen an abortionist talk. But I think it's really, really important for you
41:01
to look at that and realize how some people can live with themselves. Because this guy was just
41:05
basically like going on with his day, almost like he was doing his taxes, you know, ripping a baby
41:09
into hundreds of pieces. So I couldn't include that video on there. So if you want to get really,
41:13
really [inaudible] off, you should watch that one. But also I left in a few other things. So I talked
41:17
about the Gillette ads. So again, it's called we believe the best men can be. So I left that in
41:22
there for those of you who had never seen it, which kind of launched this whole diet tribe into
41:26
talks and about into talking about toxic masculinity. Also, I included the Wikipedia page that was
41:31
looking at hegemonic masculinity. Because again, there was a whole lot of content on there that I
41:35
didn't get to. And there's a lot of content that I think you guys would really, really enjoy. And
41:39
if you want to take a deeper dive, this is kind of a good center point for you to basically peel off
41:44
into those other areas. And then as always, when I bring this book up, I want to make sure that
41:48
you have access to it. But for those of you that have not read 12 rules for life and antidote to
41:52
chaos by Jordan Peterson, which is the section of the book that we read earlier in this podcast,
41:57
I've made sure to put that link to the Amazon thing on there for you so that you can check it out.
42:00
All right, guys, thanks so much for listening to the podcast. If you would please subscribe on
42:03
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42:08
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So please leave us one, but don't forget to leave three or four sentences to let us know why you
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like the content. I'm currently booking speaking engagements for the entirety of 2019. So if you
42:25
want me to come speak on your podcast at your men's event to your church, your business, wherever,
42:29
hit me up at info at undaunted.life again, info at undaunted.life. The website is www.undaunted.life.
42:37
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42:42
Check out our free devotionals on the U version Bible app. Just search undaunted life under plans.
42:47
And as always, we want to thank the band August Burns Red for allowing us to use our music library
42:51
for our content. The intro out to a track on this podcast is our song King of Sorrow,
42:55
which is off their latest record entitled Phantom Anthem. The links are in the description.
42:59
I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep cultivating manly resilience,
43:05
keep forging spiritual, mental and physical toughness. Keep seeking the lion of Judah.