Why Toxic Masculinity is An Absolute Lie

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Astartes

Well-known Member
Why Bodybuilding is a Vital Pursuit for Masculine Fathers

As conservative men, we understand that the cornerstone of a strong society is a strong family, led by masculine fathers who embody the virtues of discipline, strength, and emotional integrity. Engaging in bodybuilding and strength training is not only a personal pursuit of physical excellence but a moral imperative for fathers who wish to be leaders, protectors, and role models for their families, particularly in today’s culture that often seeks to undermine traditional masculinity.

Being an Example to Sons and Daughters

For fathers, your role in the family is irreplaceable. Studies consistently show that the presence of a strong, emotionally engaged father has profound effects on both sons and daughters, though the impact manifests differently for each. Boys learn how to channel their natural aggression, develop discipline, and cultivate ambition when they see their fathers striving to improve themselves physically. A father who is visibly strong, who prioritizes his health and strength, models the importance of perseverance, hard work, and self-control—values that boys desperately need to learn in order to navigate the challenges of manhood.

For daughters, a father who embodies physical strength and emotional stability sets the standard for what a man should be. When daughters grow up with strong father figures, they are less likely to seek validation through abusive relationships or sexual promiscuity. Research indicates that girls who have emotionally available and protective fathers are more likely to develop self-esteem and make healthier choices in their relationships. This isn’t just about telling our daughters what kind of men to avoid; it’s about showing them the kind of man they should expect and deserve.

Strength as a Deterrent to Predators

One of the most overlooked aspects of fatherhood is the protective role that masculine strength plays. Predators—whether they are peers, adults, or strangers—are less likely to target children who have visibly strong, protective father figures. Studies in criminology show that strong father figures, both physically and emotionally, significantly deter child predators. A family led by a physically powerful and attentive father is less likely to be perceived as an easy target. The mere presence of a father who lifts weights, takes care of his body, and prioritizes strength creates an aura of authority and protection that can safeguard children from potential harm.

Weight Lifting and the Proper Use of PEDs

Bodybuilding and strength training are natural extensions of masculine responsibility. Physical strength is not simply for vanity; it equips a man to protect, provide, and lead. In some cases, the proper use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) can amplify a man’s ability to build strength and maintain it over time. Of course, like any tool, PEDs must be used responsibly, with the goal of longevity and health in mind. However, when managed correctly, PEDs can help fathers maintain the physical edge needed to both protect and set an example for their families.

The truth is, our physical fitness and strength reflect our ability to uphold our duties as fathers. Weakness—both physical and moral—leads to instability in the family and makes our children vulnerable. A strong father, one who not only lifts weights but also bears the weight of emotional engagement, is a critical factor in guiding boys and girls away from self-destructive behaviors like drug abuse, promiscuity, and unhealthy relationships.

Masculinity as a Moral Obligation

As men who care about the future of our children and the direction of our society, we should never buy into the modern, soft idea that being passive, emotionally detached, or physically weak is acceptable. Building a strong body through weightlifting is a way to live out our masculine duty, and it reflects our commitment to our families and the principles we believe in.

Masculine strength, both physical and emotional, creates a fortress around our children, keeping them safe from external predators and internal insecurities. Our sons and daughters are watching us—they take their cues about what a man should be from how we act. If we model strength, resilience, and love, we give them the tools to navigate a world that seeks to undermine these values.

Bodybuilding, PED use (in the proper context), and the pursuit of physical excellence are not just about personal pride; they are about fulfilling the highest calling a man can have: protecting, leading, and loving your family with strength and conviction.

In a world that often promotes weakness and moral decay, let us choose to be the strong, masculine men our families need. It’s our duty to ensure the next generation is raised by fathers who are as emotionally engaged as they are physically capable. Let’s be the men our children look up to—strong, loving, and ready to defend them from the world’s dangers.
 
Everything has a possibility to be good or bad. When masculinity goes wrong it generally leads to violence, abuse, crime, rape, unnecessary aggression, etc. When masculinity is positive, it leads to protecting people, bravery, courage, doing The dirty work that has to be done, sacrificing one's own well-being and physical body to protect others when they are not able to or need that help, sacrifice for the good of others, etc. I feel the anti-masculine folks think that if we got rid of masculinity there would be no more violence or crime. One of the harsh realities of life is that life is dangerous. There are dangerous people, dangerous situations, animals that will kill you, natural disasters, things of this nature. When masculinity is focused appropriately it is a protection against these things. We need and always will need people who will do the difficult thing, put themselves in harm's way for the sake of others, do the dirty work for the good of other people. That's the pinnacle of masculinity being positive in my mind.

I don't think that bodybuilding or powerlifting or athletics etc. Are inherently good or bad. If it enriches someone's life and helps them improve as a person, then it is a good thing. Using peds and pursuing those things doesn't automatically make you a better man though. I also don't think that being really good at a sport, super muscular, super strong, etc. Means that you are more masculine. It just means that you are more of that thing. In order to be more masculine there are other aspects to the person that must be elevated as well.
 
The importance of the role of masculinity seems pretty well articulated, but that doesn't prove the absence of "toxic masculinity" which to me can easily be defined simply as insecurity.

Unfortunately, the anti-masculinity crowd seems to have this same confusion and have demonized all forms of masculinity. I don't think it's fair to blame them entirely for this perspective. I see too few "men" addressing toxic masculinity when they have an opportunity to do so.
 
Being a pussy is certainly much more fashionable now than it was when I was younger (late millennial /early gen Z depending on how you define it).

Toxic masculinity is just another silly buzzword like 'racist, sexist," etc. in 2024 that has become so ensnared in dumb and intellectually lazy ideology that it has become effectively meaningless. So it is basically only used for rhetorical effect as a sort of default, pseudo 'argument' for retards.

And this is the #1 problem our society faces now IMO. People care more about ideology and optics than they do outcomes. This dramatic shift away from pragmatism and practicality has directly resulted in the clown world we all currently inhabit. Far flung and idealistic gobbledegook spouted by idiots that think the world would be a better place if only 100% of the population follows their made up rules because they are so much better and more morally superior than us plebes. I wish I could say that I saw a shift away from this type of rank nonsense on the horizon, but I candidly highly doubt this to be the case.
 
Physical strength in the absence of a moral compass and principles such as integrity, selfishness, self-control and humility, leads to toxic masculinity.
Agreed. However… Is that truly “Masculine”?

Thus the point of my article. You can be male without being a _man_. Societally we have forgotten what being _masculine_ means.

Being brutal is easy. Being abusive is indulgent.

Being Masculine is much more than just physical as my article calls out. Society has hijacked the meaning of Masculinity.

It is up to us to take it back and define it again.
 
Is that truly “Masculine”?
masculine

adjective​

  1. Of or relating to men or boys; male.
  2. Characterized by or possessing qualities traditionally attributed to men, such as aggressiveness.
  3. Relating or belonging to the gender of words or forms that refer chiefly to males or to things grammatically classified as male.
  4. Ending on an accented beat.
    "a masculine cadence."
  5. Of the male sex; not female.
Being masculine doesn't make you a man. It makes you a male by gender with male characteristics.

Being a man, takes effort and you truly comprehend that, it isn't about you.

Our society needs men.

Edit: There are men, that may lack the physical appearance but, let me tell you brother, they can 101% go bazerker if needed be
 
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Everything has a possibility to be good or bad. When masculinity goes wrong it generally leads to violence, abuse, crime, rape, unnecessary aggression, etc. When masculinity is positive, it leads to protecting people, bravery, courage, doing The dirty work that has to be done, sacrificing one's own well-being and physical body to protect others when they are not able to or need that help, sacrifice for the good of others, etc. I feel the anti-masculine folks think that if we got rid of masculinity there would be no more violence or crime. One of the harsh realities of life is that life is dangerous. There are dangerous people, dangerous situations, animals that will kill you, natural disasters, things of this nature. When masculinity is focused appropriately it is a protection against these things. We need and always will need people who will do the difficult thing, put themselves in harm's way for the sake of others, do the dirty work for the good of other people. That's the pinnacle of masculinity being positive in my mind.

I don't think that bodybuilding or powerlifting or athletics etc. Are inherently good or bad. If it enriches someone's life and helps them improve as a person, then it is a good thing. Using peds and pursuing those things doesn't automatically make you a better man though. I also don't think that being really good at a sport, super muscular, super strong, etc. Means that you are more masculine. It just means that you are more of that thing. In order to be more masculine there are other aspects to the person that must be elevated as well.
i dont think that true masculinity can go wrong. the things you gave as an example (violence, abuse, crime, rape, unnecessary aggression, etc.) are not things caused by masculinity but rather a lack of self control and emotional control.

these two causes are not pillars of masculinity.
 
I agree with the vast majority of this - but what does any of this have to do with conservatism? Are you saying that liberal fathers are soft for voting democrat or are not there for their families? I don’t understand how the two could possibly relate.
 
I agree with the vast majority of this - but what does any of this have to do with conservatism? Are you saying that liberal fathers are soft for voting democrat or are not there for their families? I don’t understand how the two could possibly relate.
YES. Overwhelmingly

Btw… love the discourse on this. That is what I wanted.

Agree with me or not. I enjoy stimulating true engagement and idea sharing/debate.
 
i dont think that true masculinity can go wrong. the things you gave as an example (violence, abuse, crime, rape, unnecessary aggression, etc.) are not things caused by masculinity but rather a lack of self control and emotional control.

these two causes are not pillars of masculinity.
I think you are mistaken. Everything has the ability to be good or bad. Nothing is inherently always good or inherently always bad. Masculinity can most definitely be awful if used for evil. There are never-ending examples of this and more everyday. The opposite is true as well. There are many good examples of masculinity as a positive.

Give me one example of something that is always good all the time in every situation and in the hands of every single person. Impossible. Anything that has the capability of being very good can also be very very bad. Depends on the application.
 
The people who dedicate serious swaths of time thinking about this topic -- and I mean both Ms. Magazine and T-Nation style -- have a mental defect. I hope your life has family, friends, dogs, charities, churches, and hobbies that are all more fulfilling and fruitful than pondering this topic.

If not, and this actually was the most productive way to spend your time, I'd go about fixing that problem by considering what went wrong with your family, friends, dogs, charities...
 
As conservative men, we understand that the cornerstone of a strong society is a strong family, led by masculine fathers who embody the virtues of discipline, strength, and emotional integrity.
Well I’m most certainly not a Conservative, so to me this is all macho nonsense. It’s also pretty sexist - none of the females in my family need “protecting from predators”, but this idea is very much an American one & I’m British.

The irony is that crime stars show the vast majority of women who are murdered or raped / sexually assaulted are victims of someone they know & in either their own home or in a place where they’ve willingly gone with their attacker & their having a buff Dad / brother etc wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference to this.

If anything, “masculine men” thinking they know what’s best for women rather than women themselves contributes greatly to the problem.
 
YES. Overwhelmingly

Btw… love the discourse on this. That is what I wanted.

Agree with me or not. I enjoy stimulating true engagement and idea sharing/debate.
How does your choice in political candidate reflect how you raise your children? I have the opposite experience in conservative men not being in touch with their emotions and raising their children properly. Rather just being physically there but not emotionally.

Personally I’m very moderate and have voted both republican and democrat in the past based on policy and truly don’t see how a choice in candidacy has anything to do with masculinity. Unless you’re referring to a very specific section of social liberalism that is hyper focused on gender identity and “wokeness”
 
How does your choice in political candidate reflect how you raise your children? I have the opposite experience in conservative men not being in touch with their emotions and raising their children properly. Rather just being physically there but not emotionally.

Personally I’m very moderate and have voted both republican and democrat in the past based on policy and truly don’t see how a choice in candidacy has anything to do with masculinity. Unless you’re referring to a very specific section of social liberalism that is hyper focused on gender identity and “wokeness”
It is certainly a generality statement. When we forget there are exceptions, we fail. I certainly realize there are. Not all liberal men are simps and not all conservative men are alcoholic massogynists.

Much of this I agee depends on how you define certain terms. (Like wokeness. Like Masculinity)

That said, Liberal… has become more and more synonymous with “Woke” in Western society and thus representative of a segment of the population that wishes to define or _re-define_ things like male masculinity.

It has hijacked terms and thus “correctness” by trying to redefine traditional norms and terminology to embarrass and suppress conservative values. (Thus the tie in to the loaded and weaponized terming of “toxic” masculinity)

It has its roots in the feminist anti patriarchal and anti capitalism movement and is absolutely correlated with socialism and Marxism. This is well defined.

You and I agree on physicality and emotionality.

It is clearly called out in my article, though I focused a lot on physical because this is a bodybuilding forum. I wanted to appeal to men who may feel looked down on for being physically fit, emotionally strong leaders of the family… and thus exceptionally masculine in an admirable way and criticized by much of society.

I did indeed tie in the emotional intelligence piece you call out. We are definitely in alignment.

I believe, that is absolutely a core component of true Masculinity. Being male, and being Masculine are two very different things to conservative (traditional) men.

Alright.

I’ll let the forum debate and ponder. Just love and appreciate the community. Absolutely one of the best, most open to countering and challenging I have ever been a part of.
 
YES. Overwhelmingly

Btw… love the discourse on this. That is what I wanted.

Suggesting masculinity is the exclusive domain of conservatives isn't going to lead to much fruitful discourse.

If anything, “masculine men” thinking they know what’s best for women rather than women themselves contributes greatly to the problem.

I don't think anyone made that assertion. My interpretation is that men should model positive masculinity for the women and children in their lives and that masculine behaviors serve an important role in a family unit, which is a notion that's well supported by the data.

It has its roots in the feminist anti patriarchal and anti capitalism movement and is absolutely correlated with socialism and Marxism. This is well defined.

While this is true, this is one unfortunate subset of liberalism. Hell, classical liberalism looks more like conservatism these days.
 

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