Marc Legare is a philosopher and motorcycle adventurist.
He has travelled extensively, worked and lived in Australia, US, and across Canada.
He has a varied working career including: Firefighter, Lawyer, Navy, Motorcycle Importer, plus others.
He chose to return to southern Saskatchewan because of his family's deep roots here.
Masculinity is not a disease. It is vibrant, worthy, honorable, valuable, and necessary. The fact that masculinity needs to be defended is yet another testament to just how irrational and misguided our society has become.
Masculinity is defined as; a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles attributed to men and boys. The best way to describe masculinity is to give a short but far from complete list of synonyms associated with it; virility, vigor, strength, courage, ruggedness, toughness, robustness. Virtually all those characteristics are beneficial and positive.
So why then, if masculinity is replete with positive attributes, is it so maligned and vilified by our modern culture? The reason is simple yet seldom considered. Masculinity has been beaten to death and berating it is a leftover derived from the feminist era. As a result, whenever a select few have used masculine traits inappropriately, the entire body of males have been painted with the same negative brush. In a word, poor behavior by a small group of males are singled out ad infinitum. Meanwhile, little to no attention is given to the positive actions of the majority of other masculine men.
It is a worn out pastime to deleteriously point to the few who use masculinity as a sword instead of a shield. Unfortunately, there are those who enjoy ramming those examples down our throats repeatedly never missing the opportunity to shine a poisonous light on maleness as a whole. Attacking a whole group of males, or any other group, for the sins of a few is unwarranted. Doing so is not only unjust, it is destructive to us all and is outright offensive.
This is when the critics of anything masculine jump in, screaming foul, and make an over-baked claim that only male-based traits are wicked. That is a wearisome, fallacious, and deceptive position that has been given far too much air-play. Exceptions and extremes do not invalidate a fundamental truth. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with masculinity, even though it can be used negatively, any more than there is something fundamentally wrong with femininity when some feminine characteristics are used incorrectly.
All positive traits, both masculine and feminine, can be used in a negative way. Two good examples are; a venerable masculine attribute such as ruggedness can lead to brutishness, in the same way sensitiveness, a highly esteemed feminine characteristic, can lead to being a drama-queen. Both these extremes do not invalidate the inherent goodness of the masculine and feminine trait itself.
Few would disagree that masculinity has been under direct attack over the past few decades. This has made us collectively weaker, more lonely, duller, defensive, and worst of all, divided. Both men and women have suffered from the excessive attack on masculinity.
The sooner masculinity begins to have its' due once again, the better off society will be. As our world becomes increasingly unsafe, unstable, and dangerous, the strength of the masculine will be more and more in demand. Luckily, many are seeing-a-new the inherent qualities and value of it and are challenging the venomous critics who are more than willing to viciously attack anything that has a scent of maleness.
The words of Elisabeth Elliot is an enriching quote offered to those who experience their core masculinity being unduly criticized; “Stand true to your calling to be a man. Real women will always be relieved and grateful when men are willing to be men.”
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
