In Praise of Real Men #tcot #sgp #Catholic

I deliberated over whether to title this entry "In Praise of Men" or "In Praise of Real Men." I chose the latter because "real men" are men not only born with the obvious sexual identity of a man, but those who possess the rock-solid pursuit of being honorable, loyal, hard-working, and true to self. Women know the type of men I'm talking about. They're not Alan Alda. They're John Wayne.

In my early twenties, I flirted with feminism, drawn by the idea of equal pay for women. It didn't take long, however, to observe how many feminist books immediately attacked Christianity (as a male-dominated religion) and promoted a sneering condescension toward men in general. Some feminists loathed men so much that they consciously made the decision to become a lesbian. (Which is one of the reasons why I will never believe there is such a thing as a "gay gene.")

You Say Superiority Like That's a Bad Thing...

As I started to pray and ask God to give me His understanding of male and female roles, my eyes opened to "real men" and how difficult it is for them to persevere in our overly-feminized culture. One of the more successful attacks by feminists was to accuse men of being a "male chauvinist pig." (Notice how authoritarian figures such as police officers were also called "pigs?") Here are some interesting facts about the word, chauvinist. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it came from a French character in a play, Nicolas Chauvin, noted for his excessive patriotism and devotion to Napoleon in Théodore and Hippolyte Cogniard's play La Cocarde tricolore (1831). It also describes an attitude of superiority toward members of the opposite sex.

If this is true, then there are certainly a group of female chauvinists running around since they quite openly profess women being better than men.

Let's examine this concept of superiority. Would not an Olympian athlete be considered superior when he or she earns a gold medal? Would a student not be considered superior to her fellow students if she earned an "A" while most of the class earned a "C?" And would not a man be considered superior in strength in football? Superior is not a political concept. It is a comparative fact when dealing with intellect and physical prowess. However, we now live in crazy-land, where school sports have done away with keeping score so that the losing team doesn't feel so bad.

Do you remember the outrage some women had when they wanted to become firemen? The test, they claimed, was discriminatory. Brenda Berkman filed a lawsuit saying that the physical strength section (which kept women out) was unnecessary. She won and that part of the exam was removed. Excuse me, but I'm half-German and full of muscle. If I'm unconscious in a burning building, I don't want some female firefighter pulling half of me out because that's all she can handle. This is a clear case of a man being superior to a woman. A man's upper body strength will always trump a woman's and is a good reason why men should be firemen. Firefighters must have incredible strength and endurance, able to hold a hose full of water with 150 lbs. per square inch of pressure. A petite 130 lb. woman is not going to cut it.

So I happily concede that men are superior to women physically. Sure, there are some exceptions, but overall, men are simply stronger than women. And although there may not be as many of them, there still exist men who will throw themselves on a bomb to save others. Men like Jasper Schuringa realize that time is of the essence and that part of being a man is taking action. These are the "real men" in my book. Men who are acting upon something deep within themselves, a knowing of who they are and a clear definition of right and wrong.

Let's Hear It For Men Of Action

I suspect Jasper Schuringa and others like him had a sense of strength instilled in him at a young age. Decisions such as throwing oneself on a Islamofascist terrorist doesn't come from having the masculinity beaten out of you by a feminized school curriculum. It comes from having true masculinity modeled for you and realizing that our world needs men of action.

I will never forget how stunned I was when the Virginia Tech killer, Seung-Hui Cho, easily mowed down a number of students in their classrooms. At one point, he lined up a group of students and then shot them execution-style. My first thought was, where were the men? Were there no men who would rush this killer, tackling him to prevent further carnage? And then I thought about what our schools have done to young boys, penalizing them for being boys and beating any desire to take action against evil out of them. Because as far as our wimpy schools go, there is "no such thing as evil." Those who commit such horrific crimes are instead "victims" and must be given understanding, not judgement.

Well, real men know how to deal out judgement, in my book.

Real men don't sit around, waiting for some nutjob to aerate their bodies with a .22-caliber Walther P22 semi-automatic and a 9 mm semi-automatic Glock 19 handgun. Real men don't wait until a group of Islamofascist terrorists crash their jet into the U.S. Capitol building. Real men take the bull by the horns and say he who hesitates, is lost. Real men usually wear uniforms and don't care who they tick off. Real men will protect a woman, even if she's Hillary Clinton. Real men rock my world.

Are there any real men left? Yes and I believe more are on the way. It is my hope that fellow Catholic blogger (The Lair of the Catholic Cavemen), "Vir Speluncae Catholicus," is wrong on why we'll lose the war. Real men have saved the world before. I'm hoping they'll save it again.

(Video below: Harsh Language Involved!)