Writer Costello Crozier asks how we can promote ’Christian masculine virtues’ in a world where the toxic masculinity of men like Andrew Tate is praised, and feminism is thought to have caused harm.
A new survey has found that 16% of gen Z males felt feminism had done more harm than good. The polling of over 3,600 people conducted by The Policy Institute at King’s College London and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership also found that a fifth of UK males aged 16 to 29 now look favourably on the social media influencer Andrew Tate.
To anyone listening to the current political and cultural climate, these figures should come as no surprise. What did we expect to happen when we decided to destroy, demonise, and dismantle all forms of masculinity, even the good ones?
What did we expect to happen when we decided to destroy, demonise, and dismantle all forms of masculinity, even the good ones?
When we threw the baby out with the bath water, we have ended up elevating a bombastic, hedonistic and ego-driven figure such as Tate with his cartoonish hyper-masculinity and bravado to lecture young males on how they should conduct themselves.
A man who as little as ten years ago would have been laughed out of the room, is now idolised by many young lost souls, seeking a role model or a father figure in the absence of a real life one.
Andrew Tate is emblematic of the consequence of the emasculation of the genuine and true forms of masculinity.
Men and women have inherent differences, and while there will always be a cohort who cross the gender divide with certain traits, for the majority, we need to accommodate for difference. But how do we do this in a time of such toxicity? One way, I believe, is through reviving the West’s Christian roots.
It comes as no surprise that these gender wars and impending ‘fractious division’ has correlated with a time where Christian virtue is absent.
Our overarching moral and ethical structure have changed in the last two decades. We once viewed the world through a Christian frame, but now we use a secular one. This non-religious outlook on how we should behave was done in the name of ‘progress’. We were supposedly meant to have banished ourselves of the shackles and dogma of religion and move into a golden age of rationality.
Christianity may be old, but it is also perpetually relevant – and provides an incredibly effective framework for relations between the sexes.
The immense popularity of characters like Tate among the next generation, is proof that this, quite obviously, has not happened.
Christianity may be old, but it is also perpetually relevant – and provides an incredibly effective framework for relations between the sexes.
For one, Christianity is inherently pro-women. In his work ‘A History of European Morals’, William E. Lecky observes that the conversion from paganism to Christianity greatly enhanced the status of women in society. According to Lecky, the advent of Christianity brought new moral perspectives that challenged many of the norms of Greco-Roman society. It introduced an absolute prohibition of sexual indulgence outside marriage, the security of wives by the prohibition of divorce and the inheritance of widows. It was also Christians who introduced separate prison cells for men and women and Christians were also the first to educate women.
Historian Tom Holland points out in his book about the history of Christendom, ‘Dominion’, that the advent of Christianity created the first ever sexual revolution. Christians demanded chastity, not only from women, but also, radically, from men, too. This was revolutionary at the time and is still seen as weird to this day.
It can be argued that Christians in society fall short of those sexual ideals, but that doesn’t mean we should completely dispense of them. Surely a society that promotes male celibacy and fatherhood is a better alternative than a culture that allows figures like Andrew Tate to dictate the sexual mores.
Read more on Andrew Tate
Andrew Tate, misogyny in the media and why Christians should be paying attention
As a father of daughters, husband to a wife, a brother to a sister, a son to a mother and an uncle to nieces, I want to suggest another option rather than the ‘fractious division’ prophesied by this survey. That option should be the promotion of Christian masculine virtues in society by both sexes.This means that men need to take responsibility. Stand up and uphold the teachings and self-discipline orchestrated by Christ. And women need to celebrate these Christian forms of masculinity when they see it, rather than add fuel to the cultural fire, by ignoring these efforts from men.
As writer Mary Harrington points out, we, together, need to rediscover the beauty of Christian masculinity - the insistence on the duty to protect the weak, to submit to discipline and hierarchy, to act with honour, and to consider the past and future. And we together need to reflect the biblical view of compatibility where love, respect, and mutual support are key and emphasise the fundamental spiritual equality of all people in Christ’s eyes.
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 (NIV).
If we can carry these words close, we won’t go far wrong.
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