{"id":69355,"date":"2019-01-18T15:47:25","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T22:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=69355"},"modified":"2019-01-18T16:18:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T23:18:54","slug":"in-defense-of-patriarchs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/01\/in-defense-of-patriarchs.html","title":{"rendered":"In defense of patriarchs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"12<\/a>
I watched this film again a week or two ago on one of the flights home from Cairo. While I certainly don\u2019t think that warfare is the best expression of masculinity, let alone the only adequate one, it seems to me that defense of the right and protection of the innocent is among its highest expressions, even when (as sometimes sadly happens) that requires the use of justifiable violence.
(Theatrical poster, fair use)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Masculinity is under ideologically-motivated attack in some quarters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

You may perhaps have missed these items:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGrown Men Are the Solution, Not the Problem:\u00a0With young men in crisis, the American Psychological Association wrongly declares war on \u2018traditional masculinity\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe APA Can\u2019t Spin Its Way Out of Its Attack on \u2018Traditional Masculinity\u2019:\u00a0Our culture has grown more disdainful of common, inherent male characteristics.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And now there\u2019s a new controversy:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cProcter & Gamble\u2019s Toxic Sanctimony:\u00a0A new ad for Gillette razors parrots crude leftist stereotypes of men.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGillette Is Not Wrong:\u00a0The razor company\u2019s newest ad has been savagely received on the right, but its message is more conservative than the critics acknowledge.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Have the Men Ever Done for Us? \u00a0Plenty. Someone should tell Gillette.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGillette Joins the Fight against \u2018Toxic Masculinity\u2019:\u00a0We need more masculinity \u2014 genuine masculinity \u2014 not less.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cForget the Gillette Ad,\u00a0This<\/i>\u00a0Is What an Attack on Masculinity Looks Like\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, in a separate but related flare-up with overtones of religious bigotry:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Tender, Heroic Men \u2014 the Knights of Columbus\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some older material that\u2019s still worth reading:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Feminists, \u2018Male Vulnerability\u2019 Isn\u2019t a Virtue:\u00a0Among the great gifts a father can give a son is a sense of masculine purpose.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Question That Reveals the Heart of the Culture Wars\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, I think that more than a few among my readers here will find this intriguing article, by an anthropologist based in Oxford, both important and extraordinarily interesting \u2014 as I did. \u00a0I\u2019m not enough of an evolutionary primatologist to be able to determine how much of the tale Dr. Anna Machin tells is a stimulating just-so story and how much rests upon well-grounded fact, but it\u2019s fascinating and it makes an excellent case for the importance of fathers as parental complements to mothers:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe marvel of the human dad:\u00a0Among our close animal relatives, only humans have involved and empathic fathers. Why did evolution favour the devoted dad?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Really, I strongly recommend Dr. Machin\u2019s article. \u00a0It\u2019s quite thought-provoking.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Masculinity is under ideologically-motivated attack in some quarters. \u00a0 You may perhaps have missed these items: \u00a0 \u201cGrown Men Are the Solution, Not the Problem:\u00a0With young men in crisis, the American Psychological Association wrongly declares war on \u2018traditional masculinity\u2019\u201d \u00a0 \u201cThe APA Can\u2019t Spin Its Way Out of Its Attack on \u2018Traditional Masculinity\u2019:\u00a0Our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2713,2710,249,2704,2475,2707,2698,2695,788,55,2701,2716],"class_list":["post-69355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-boys","tag-culture-wars","tag-evolution","tag-family","tag-gender","tag-gender-roles","tag-male","tag-masculinity","tag-mormon","tag-mormonism","tag-patriarch","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"\nIn defense of patriarchs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Masculinity is under ideologically-motivated attack in some quarters.   You may perhaps have missed these items:   "Grown Men Are\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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