This is a question I mull over occasionally. We hear about "toxic masculinity" all the time and I think it's a perfectly easy concept to grasp. That implies there's a healthy masculinity, but we don't hear about that nearly as often.
This topic popped into my head while watching the Trump assassination attempt video. My eyes were drawn to the men in the background who dove to cover their loved ones. In particular, I noticed one man who was apparently there with his kid and I could feel his terror as he covered his kid with his body until well after the shots stopped. It's hard to convey to those without kids how resonant that imagery is. Then we find out that the man who died, Corey Comperatore, was shielding his family with his body. In my book, that's as masculine as it gets and that man is as big of a hero as anyone can be.
I was listening to Part of the Problem earlier today and they were talking about masculinity. Dave was making fun of the lame superficial internet version that's embodied by Andrew Tate. His take was that masculinity boils down to "protection and provision". They also discussed the importance of being "peaceful, but not harmless" and how being harmless is essentially the least masculine trait.
At the heart of this, there's a recognition that ultimately we are more expendable than our loved ones and we need to be able to act on that.
What do you all think? I'm eager to hear your thoughts.
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