God is a He,

a Father, a Son. The ultimate embodiment of a Man for the rest of us aspire to, being able to Create without a woman... I guess it was pretty easy for the predominantly male leadership of the Church to solidify the ideology of what men and women are supposed to be.

Oooh this is a ranty post. Heh it's thanks to this 5 pillars of Manhood article.

Now the first major issue with this article is that the "Pillars of Manhood" are all in the context of "loving and respecting" a woman, creating a focus on the relationship between men and women, where this idea of what men are supposed to be, determines the assumptions of what women are.

1. "Lead. A man must be the leader in a relationship, in a marriage, in a family. There are no excuses. A woman doesn’t want to make the decisions for her man, she wants her man to lead in the relationship"

So... Women are indecisive followers. No excuses.


2. "Protect. A real man of God will protect his partner...Women are emotional beings and their hearts are not to be played with."

So... Women require protection, they are vulnerable, emotional and, in danger and distress.


3. "Provide. If a man can’t provide, he isn’t a man...Women were created for beauty. They were created beautiful, to feel beautiful to be treated beautiful. You don’t handle a rose without care.."

So... Women are dependent on the Man, because if a man can't provide he isn't a man. Women are beautiful fragile flowers, to be handled with care, provided for in every way.


4. "Integrity. In old times, when a man said “You have my word!” that word was bond, it was as if an actual contract had been written, because your word was your reputation."

At first, I was okay with pillar number 4. But I thought more about it... In old times, women were assumed to be fickle, prone to flights of fancy, and there was not much weight placed on their words. If Integrity is a pillar of manhood, what is it to women? If it is a quality that should be prized in both men and women, why is it a pillar of MANhood?


5. "Courage. Men were created to fight battles. Men were created to rescue beauties."

Same type of problem as pillar 4... What does making Courage a pillar of Manhood assume about women? Couldn't they use courage too? Aren't women brave too? Oh yeah, give me some crap about how it's a different type of courage, please.

Just look at that line. It's disgusting. The courageous knight rescuing the beautiful damsel. Oh snap if a man was saved by a woman he should rip his balls off right then and there.


I realize that my reaction against this article is almost completely the same as my reaction to Wild at Heart, and now I'm thinking, "wow Jaeson Ma must have gotten most of his points from there...." So what is a man? A real Man: Don't need sleep, Hunts, Can't be defined.... Meh obviously, I don't have the answer...

Or do I? The thing is, it would be MY answer. Yours may not be the same.