..."Leave the saving of the world to the men? I don't think so," quipped Elastigirl in Pixar’s "The Incredibles."
That was 2004. Since then, Helen Parr’s popular feminist maxim has come to define Hollywood’s endemic anti-man ethos. Her words seem to underlie every major entry for cinema’s largest metonym, from recent "girl-boss" movies to more male-oriented films, all of which include an obligatory nod to the superior strength, intelligence and independence of womankind.
Everywhere we look, bold, confident, self-assured females upstage passive men who recede quietly into the background. Into the basement. Into the past.
Fathers, in particular, have become the butt of every woke Hollywood jab, the bumbling, useless idiots who contribute nothing to their families or communities, but sacrifice themselves as objects of ridicule.
Does Hollywood fear good men? Not necessarily big, bulky men with daunting physiques – those aren’t in too short supply on today’s big screen. Good men. Admirable men. Men we’d want our sons to emulate and daughters to date.
Society today seriously misunderstands masculinity. On the one hand, we love to normalize androgynous, Billy Porter-type men who sport skirts and poofy dresses. GQ’s 2019 best-dressed man, Timothée Chalamet, for example, often wears clothes that, well… let’s just say your grandfather wouldn’t have been caught dead dressed like Chalamet.
(CRIPES)
On the other hand, our favorite movies are heavily populated with brawny macho men. I should know – I made a name for myself in the industry playing a Greek half-god.
But is that really all that it takes to be a good man? No. In fact, you can work out and dress like a man’s man – ridiculing "betas" like Dylan Mulvaney and Chalamet – and still fall prey to the masculinity crisis.
How?
In order to go out and conquer the world, men must first conquer themselves. Sadly, men today have often instead been conquered. We’ve been subdued by alcohol, drugs, video games, porn and other entertainment. The caricature of the useless man in his parents’ basement increasingly depicts real life.
It doesn’t really matter what end of the masculinity spectrum you fall on; if you’re a victim to your own base desires, the feminist culture has won. You’re exactly the kind of wussy man they (think they) want you to be.
In reality, America today needs warriors; protectors; responsible and committed fathers. We certainly don’t need another MCU-esque superhero. We need men who will raise their kids, defend their homes, provide for their families, and serve self-sacrificially – all of which is impossible if they are dissipated and addicted to pleasure.
The call of duty to today’s man is to rise above what society and the media say he is doomed to be, becoming instead the servant leader his family and community so desperately require..."
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You'll follow widening Rhodanus till vine and olive lean
Sunlight on a building (1937), by the Scottish artist James Proudfoot.
Morning Sun, by Samuel Birch.
Pushing onward, if not upward, Barbie crosses the mighty Mississippi on Mark Morris Memorial Bridge, which replaced the iconic Lyons-Fulton Bridge. The ironwork for the original started in March 1891, employing 50 workers-cum-men manipulating around 1,200,000 pounds of iron. Not toxicity, but a lot of testosterone-fueled energy and strength was exerted to cast, shape, deploy, and weld that much iron.
