Manliness is: resilience. A principle against a victim mentality. In my boyhood years, whenever I was told to "be a man" or "man up," it's because I was acting like a victim. Was I a victim at those times? Occasionally. But what benefit was I creating by acting like a victim? None. Usually, in those instances, I was whining, instead of trying to create a solution. I was complaining that something was unfair rather than try to rise up to the required level of play. Now, if there are injustices or unfair play, and we find ourselves in a position to level the field for others, should we? That's a tricky question; I'll answer it with another one. Do I want myself (or for that matter, my children) to occasionally face unfair disadvantages in life? Are those instances beneficial? Oprah, Walt Disney, John Paul DeJoria, Andrew Carnegie. They all suffered extreme hardship early on, but they overcame. And because they were able to overcome, they...
Masculinity has been getting a very bad rap in the last couple of years. Just a cursory google search of articles with the word "masculinity" will turn up results like this one or this one. In 2017 and 2018 (and obviously still into 2019 a bit) you couldn't hear or read the word "masculinity" without the word "toxic" in front of it. Now, some traits of masculinity, if left unchecked, can result in a toxicity that can spoil a man, but to hear it told by some, strong and aggressive masculinity is a terrible thing by its nature and should be thrown out and substituted with the more nurturing femininity. This does no favors to "good" men, and "bad" men won't hear it anyway (more on that distinction later). It isn't masculinity that is toxic. Toxicity is present in all ways of life - it is a form of selective extremism choosing only a small part of expected behavior and ignoring the balance that should exist alongside it. Str...