In the US, we are proud of the first amendment separating Church and State. People have freedom of speech as well as the right to assemble and petition for their cause. When their words, assemblies, and petitions co-align with the Christian ideals of the Founding Fathers and current leaders of the United States, they are supported. However, as stated in the 1971 ‘Lemon vs Kurtzman Supreme court case, "Our prior holdings do not call for total separation between church and state.” In other words, christianity in America today is largely being used to uphold toxic white male power and is being used to entrench white male masculine ideals. The first amendment is largely overlooked. The Christian men who wrote the constitution knew that other Christian men would enforce their interpretation of the constitution, and these men are applying their belief systems to US policies. Currently, segregation and toxic masculinity remain on greatest display within religious communities. According to the Equal Justice initiative, most religious communities remain segregated. Just as many religious communities were in support of the KKK throughout the 1900’s, religious communities are still supporting toxic masculinity with silence, obedience, and blatant defiance of social justice initiatives. The toxic masculinity within the most wealthy religious cultures parallels the narrow-minded wealth initiatives of our most racist political leaders including Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump. There is no better example of arrogant toxic masculinity than the evangelical Christian leader, Jerry Falwell Jr., who served as the former president of Liberty University. In August of 2020 he was asked to take an indefinite leave of absence. He shared an Instagram photo with his arm around a young ‘friend’ as he exposed his belly and crotch area to make light of her pregnancy during their lavish vacation on a yacht. This is not only humiliating to the woman involved, but also continues to entrench the ideas of sexual prowess and dominion as defining male characteristics.Our founding fathers were after land and money, and their rich benefactors are after more land, more money and a good time on a yacht. Falwell also has a history of unabashedly encouraging toxic masculine traits such as violence, fearmongering, emasculation, and aggression. Following the 2015 San Bernardino shooting, Falwell encouraged taking advantage of second amendment rights to “end those Muslims before they walk in.” He has also hired Michael Cohen (Trump’s personal lawyer) to eradicate a few sexual role-playing photos exposed in the past. He has even tweeted a photo of KKK and blackface in an attempt to mock the democratic governor of Virginia. President Trump has endorsed his followers and his students, and Liberty University has endorsed President Trump. Both of those leaders share the same goals, and part of that goal is to endorse toxic masculinity in the name of God and in support of the USA. Aside from Liberty University being one of the most prominent and wealthy evangelical Christian Churches in the USA, white males also dominate the vast majority of leadership positions within individual churches. Church communities lacking white, wealthy, heterosexual, strong, and cisgender participants are often shamed rather than unified with communities holding similar spiritual beliefs. Rather than seeing past sexual identity and sexual preference, churches are hyper focused on the standard definitions of family, male and female, in order to uphold their “alpha-male” status within their communities. In doing so, they also reap the benefits of financial connections with our government. If we stepped back to see the church systems within the United States to be an industry, we would see that the vast majority of church teachings are simply a quiet tool of justification for the wealthy. Too many church communities continue to justify their prejudice, support their power, and amplify their wealth. Although several steps have been taken to quiet the outward proclamations of racism and toxic masculinity, our current president has amplified both of those nasty initiatives within the republican party and many church communities. In fact, at one of his rallies in Iowa, Trump said,”Christianity will have power. If I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power, you don’t need anybody else. You’re going to have somebody representing you very, very well. Remember that.”
He was met with wild, fervent applause. The silent white majority feels more and more outnumbered. The silent white majority wants their guns. They want their boy’s restroom and their girl’s restroom. They want their nation to pledge allegiance to the American version of Jesus Christ, and they want to ensure immigrants and other countries will not steal their jobs, take their money, or question their religious beliefs.. Trump promises to grant them their wishes, and they continue to trust him. They view him as their savior, the one who can continue to establish dominance for white men nationwide. And they’re using the church to sneak it under our noses.
0 Comments
By Daniel Miller Only within the last century has our culture claimed to accept other races and the female gender to be of equal status to the idolized white male. Recently, we have seen brutal police attacks on unarmed black men fueled not just by racism, but the toxic, alpha-male stereotype these cisgender white men have embraced. We have heard comments from the current president of the United States dehumanizing and mocking women and femininity. Our culture has a long way to go before a healthy example of masculinity becomes the social norm. Redefining masculinity, and reassessing current expectations for all males is a great place to start. Everyone, especially the younger generation, would benefit from a better understanding of the barriers inhibiting a healthy perception of masculinity. What if the perception of a man was redefined? What if the pursuit of money, strength, and sexual gratification were no longer glorified as primary goals? What if those toxic and topical pursuits were replaced with compassion, health, and love (to name a few)? How the Media shows Toxic Masculinity in Law Enforcement Males are pushed to consistently portray masculine characteristics (or lack thereof). The most prominent societal examples of praised aggressive behavior include the ‘western’ television shows and movies before my time. Those evolved into today’s crime investigation shows including Law and Order, Criminal Minds, and the Blacklist to name a few. I am sure I excluded some personal favorites, and there are so many options you can easily find several ‘top 50’ in search results. The common theme: there is social power over groups that choose to break the law. The unfortunate result: many men enter the police force hoping to exhibit their male power over anyone who breaks the law. The glorification of masculine power (for both the underdog committing the crime and the authorities enforcing the law) sets the stage for toxic cycles of emotionless, aggressive, and violent behavior. In these television shows, there is little if any compassion for the individual who commits the crime. There is rarely a goal to understand why the ‘villain’ chose to commit the crime in the first place. In addition, the people enforcing the law have no regrets for arresting or even murdering the criminal. After the aggressive and violent enforcement takes place, the scene depicts the stronger man winning. The personal connection between the enforcer and the criminal is eradicated, and the enforcer steps away from the cold moment of enforcement to share his heroic story with close friends and family. Toxic masculinity is embedded within the criminal is often scripted to have no respect for human life. However, those criminals are few and far between. The toxic masculinity embedded within the police and the leaders who already have more power is praised and encouraged. As that toxicity continues to grow, so does the hunger for more power. These embedded aggressions and outward acts of violence driven by toxic masculinity are unfairly projected disproportionally onto BIPOC in real life. WARNING: Viewer Discretion is Advised When men are judged to lack white skin and/or wealth, they are often labeled as a hypermasculine threat to society. Never has this been clearer as we have seen recordings of groups of white police officers physically abuse and murder defenseless black men with their bare hands. Black children continue to be dehumanized, and the masculine idolization in US culture has urged our society to overlook that fact. Through a convoluted mix of racism and an incessant need to prove their manliness —which is driven by toxic masculinity— police officers continue to discriminate subconsciously against BIPOC. The police enforcers have the guns, the pepper spray, the tear gas, the no knock warrants. However, it is our political leaders that most loudly praise their manliness, most urgently call for more enforcement, and most aggressively pursue more power. For all men, and for our society, it is sad that any of those expectations even exist. The Intersection Between Law Enforcement and Politicians Have you heard of the MOVE group? Neither have the vast majority of Americans. The MOVE group was a de-industrialization, simple living and animal rights activist group that pushed for social justice after the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1965. In other words, they were perceived as a threat to white male power. With toxic masculinity and racism driving their need for power, control, and dominance, the city of Philadelphia ordered more than ten thousand rounds of ammunition to be fired into their home and followed by dropping a bomb on their house filled with women and children. This story is not in our recent history books. Most people don’t know anything about it. I had never heard of it until I started listening to ‘Pod Save the People’ podcasts. The toxic white male ego our nation is built upon is unable to rationally process the absurdity and reality of this story. The toxic white male ego continues to say: Slavery ended over 100 years ago. Social justice was required by law in the 1960’s. All Lives Matter. Most recently, likely due to the example of extreme toxic masculinity from President Trump as well as the recent push for law enforcement officers to have video recordings of their actions, several defenseless Black men and women have been murdered by police authorities. And for the first time, the video footage is being released AND acknowledged. But we still have a long way to go. The power of law enforcement is the ultimate representation of toxicity as innocent victims continue to be harassed, abused, and murdered. These examples highlight the fact that too many males are violently looking for confrontation rather than peace. Too many males are too quick to flaunt representations of strength rather than negotiate. Toxic masculinity has been emulated to perfection by our current president, and several of his most vocal supporters are supporting his position. He has consistently mocked women, immigrants, the disabled, and the poor. He has made several racist remarks toward Asian, Hispanic, and Black individuals, and their communities. He has made several derogatory remarks toward all groups open to social justice and equality. Individuals who are the most confined within their toxic masculinity are also the most openly vocal. Currently, the republican party is an excellent representation of toxic masculinity. While claiming to represent its supporters, 81% of republicans in the US Senate are white male. Although white males are only 30% of the US population, the US house of representatives is even more lopsided with 88% being white males. A specific example of toxic masculinity includes white male Republican, Ted Yoho, verbally assaulting Puerto Rican female congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for saying increased crime rates were caused by increased poverty and unemployment rates. After calling her a “F***k*** B***h,” he attempted to apologize. Instead, he justified his disrespect by saying “Having been married for 45 years with two daughters, I’m very cognizant of my language.” As a culture, many men have many excuses for justifying toxic masculinity. We were taught to follow the examples of our forefathers. We were taught to respect our leaders and our authorities. The ‘powerful white male’ always was and continues to be having an ego crisis. Currently, this power is spinning out of control and starting to induce combinations of self-suffocation and violent outrage spurred on by unrealistic masculine ideals. White males, and people in a position who perpetrate toxic masculinity as a societal norm must evolve to be conducive to a healthy and productive society, or white males will be overpowered by the majority. |
AuthorsDaniel Miller Archives |