First, a PSA: I'm sick as a dog, so if I don't have a Still Not Black Enough chapter ready by Monday, that's why. But I'm tough, so I'll try to pull it off.
Anyway.
This picture was posted on Facebook and I happened to read the discussion below in the comment section.
Something that struck me was a few people saying things along the lines: "This is a good thing; the boys in the above picture will just grow up to be school shooters. Something, something, something, toxic masculinity."
I'm here to tell you why that is, in fact, not the case.
It’s not the boys in the above picture that grow up to be school shooters.
They will be masculine enough to attract a partner, shielding them from the depression that leads to school shootings.
If I had to guess, I’d put my money on the ”boys” in the picture below as potential school shooters.
School shooters are always weak and alone. They’re men who can’t get a date.
You can throw all the equality bullshit you want at me, but the simple truth is that weak and unmasculine men will end up alone because women ultimately want a man.
They may settle with a modern man in their 30s when they’re attractiveness and best days are behind them, but A) They’ll still cheat on the side if the possibility of doing so presents itself, and B) That’s only if the guys even make it into their 30s before committing suicide or a mass shooting due to depression caused by failure and loneliness.
In case you haven't noticed, school shooters aren't strong, masculine men who are popular among females. They're usually the Elliot Rodgers types who are, what, 5'5" and 90 pounds soaking wet.
I checked out a few of the videos by one Mr. Rodgers shortly after he did his thing, and the one thing I noticed instantly was just how damn feminine the guy was. There wasn't an ounce of masculinity in the guy, nothing about his body language and the way he presented himself yelled "testosterone".
It doesn't take a degree in rocket science to quickly figure out why he was a virgin. Sorry, but it's the truth.
It's the popular liberal/libertarian thing to say that people can just do whatever they please and be themselves, but honestly, as I've gotten older, I've grown more skeptical of that attitude.
I think sometimes an outsider can be in a position where it's justified to slap someone in the face and tell them that what they're doing is harmful to themselves.
And I'd say that the alarming loss of masculinity in men and boys in society is something that's not only harmful to them, but harmful to other people, as well. There aren't many things that are more dangerous than a desperate man who can't get a date. That man has nothing to lose, and when that time bomb goes off, it's a dangerous thing.
Of course, men aren't really encouraged to be masculine these days because we're trained to think that genders don't even exist and whatnot.
And this notion kind of frees men from the burden of being a man - and something that a lot of people also don't seem to get is that being a man is fucking horrible at times. Not all the time, not at all. But being a man, an actual man, is a damn burden. It's a rewarding burden ultimately, and I wouldn't have it any other way, but there definitely is a price to pay.
But when naive enough boys and young men are kind of given permission by society and culture to not carry that burden and to not take that responsibility of being a man, many will gladly take up on the offer.
The tragic outcome of this will be a growing number of weak men who are alone and depressed.
And some of them will go to the extreme of taking that out on other people.
But trust me: it's not going to be the boys in the above picture - it's the ones in the picture below.