What is masculinity?

What is masculinity?

Masculinity is male maturity, which is a measure of how competently a man shoulders his age-appropriate responsibilities.

All the outward signs of masculinity are products of a man’s pursuit of competency. His desire to meet his responsibilities drives his pursuit of competence.

While some of men’s specific responsibilities change with the generations, any accurate description of masculinity is universal and not tied to a single culture, people, or time.

What are a man’s responsibilities?

In The Way Of Men @ph2t3r introduces the four tactical virtues: strength, courage, mastery, and honor, as the universal requirements of masculinity, essential virtues a man must cultivate to meet his responsibilities to the other men of his tribe.

A man’s basic responsibility to other men is to: ♂️ Be useful and a net value to his tribe mates. ♂️ Ensure (guarantee) his words and actions. ♂️ Avoid imposing a cost on the tribe.

These responsibilities are not optional. They are the natural law for us and the foundation for all other just laws.

But a man has other responsibilities—to himself, to his ancestors, and to his descendants.

What we owe ourselves

We exist in time. There is past you, present you, and future you. These are not all the same people. We change over time. You owe past you gratitude, you owe present you mindfulness, and you own future you consideration.

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. Heraclitus

A man’s basic responsibility to himself is to: ♂️ Invest in and defend his name, honor, and reputation. ♂️ Care for his mind, body, and soul. ♂️ Reach his highest potential, even if for only a brief moment. ♂️ Find an honorable death.

What we owe our ancestors

We exist because our ancestors invested their time, energy, and lives into us and our future. They did this so that we could pay it forward and create future generations.

A man’s basic responsibility to his ancestors is to: ♂️ Add to the value they bequeathed him (wealth, culture, and genetics). ♂️ Continue their chain of descendants. ♂️ Have your children with a woman they would have approved of.

What we owe our descendants

When we choose to have children, it comes with some responsibilities that start long before we even meet the mother of our children.

We must not limit ourselves to thinking about our children when we should be thinking about our descendants over time. Think about how to leave wisdom and guidance for all your following generations.

A man’s basic responsibility to his descendants is to: ♂️ Choose the best possible mother for them. ♂️ Teach them their ancestry and the culture of their people. ♂️ Prepare them for the responsibilities of adulthood and maturity as future parents.

Describing any one of these responsibilities in detail could become a whole post. None of them are easy to meet. All of them require struggle and growth.

Being a mature, masculine man is not easy, and we haven’t even touched on being a good man. Unfortunately, most males today have not been raised to become men or to take on responsibility successfully.

These under fathered men feel stuck, unable to progress to the place in life that they want to go.

Only another man can teach you what being a man is, and even then, few men are capable of teaching masculinity. If you are struggling to move to the next step of your maturity and development as a man, find yourself an older man as a mentor, join a group of masculine men on a mission, and DM me for help and training.