A thoughtful essay.
Ever heard a feminist woman say that she is looking for a low-energy guy who can't hold a job, make his own goddam sandwich, or defend the family with force, if needed? It quotes Paglia:
‘The women’s movement is rooted in the belief that we don’t need men. All it will take is one natural disaster to prove how wrong that is. Then, the only thing holding this culture together will be masculine men of the working class.’ The new middle-class clerisy, whose number includes Webb, would do well to remember this: your literary luxury to demean the virtues of masculinity is predicated on the fact that you live in a society in which masculine men, particularly working-class ones, will defend your life and your family in the face of a disaster that will hopefully never come. You are free to insult these people precisely because these people have developed the ‘masculine’ strength to defend the society you live in.
Also,
... there are many people out there, millions of people, who see their values as better than yours, and who indeed see your values as crazy or at least incredibly unuseful. People who think that emotional awareness is a ridiculous value and utterly unhelpful in the negotiation of daily life, daily work, and daily struggle. But these people don’t have book deals and don’t have Joanna Lumley and JK Rowling singing their praises — as Webb’s book does — and so we can sneer at them. They become ignorable, even morally inferior. That grates with some of us because we know that in the communities we grew up in, the ‘toxic masculine’ values that it has become fashionable to disdain are viewed incredibly positively, and actually are incredibly positive: they provide you with the armour for the unforgiving trials of life in a society in which nothing is given and everything must be fought for.
