30-Year Old Veteran Attending University Experiences Feminism, ‘Toxic Masculinity,’ And Remains Unscathed. Also, Patricia Arquette’s Boobs.

Did y’all watch the Globes last night?  It was TOTALLY WORTH it, just for Ricky Gervais’ monologue.  If you haven’t seen that yet, YOU MUST.  Michelle Williams and Patricia Arquette (who REALLY WANTED you to see her boobs last night), totally ignored Ricky’s sage advice, but I expected nothing less from either of them.

I’m not kidding about the boobs, y’all.

Anyway, none of that has anything to do with what I’m about to share with you, but it was top of mind so I wanted to get that off my chest first.

HA HA HA HA HA HA – see what I did there?  With the chest thing?

Sorry.  I just can’t get over Patty’s boobs.  The pic doesn’t even tell the full story – you should watch a video of her from last night.  They looked like they were about to explode.

ANYWAY.

We got a really fantastic message over the weekend – I read it, asked the sender if I could share it, and he agreed (but we are not sharing his full name at his request).  I found it very hopeful, and thought y’all would enjoy it too.

Hey Chicks!

I sent this as a Facebook message to your page, but just in case you don’t check it as often, I wanted to leave it here too!

First off, I hope y’all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I wanted to reach out to let y’all know that I came across your FB page a few months ago and I’ve been a fan of what you’re putting out!

To give you a little background on me: I spent most of my early twenties in the Army, serving at home and overseas in Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky! I got out of the Army toward the end of 2015, and went back to school in 2016. Finally, I’m in my last semester and I’ll graduate in May with a BA in Political Science! I’m 30, so obviously I’m a little late to the college degree party, but oh well, I’m almost there!

Going to college in your late twenties, after you’ve already kind of been out in the world a little bit, paid bills and had bosses, well it makes for an interesting experience!

I was in a gender studies course last semester, and it was really heavy on the feminist view point, which is fine, I’m down to learn more about it, but the professor, a 32 year old white women with a wall of degrees, laid it out pretty bluntly for us students. Basically, the message of this course: “Men are no good, and we need to have them act like women so the world will be a better place.” Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, starting at 1:30 and lasting for about an hour, you would be sure to hear some form of this message being put out. There were about 30-35 students in the course, including 4-5 dudes, counting myself, and the rest girls. The girls ate it up, like every word!For the guys in there, I’m pretty sure that I could have counted on just one of them to actually help me in case someone with a gun came into the room unannounced and started shooting, the rest of them were the type of dudes that would have probably been screaming louder than the girls. In fact, I think I could have counted on the girls to help me stop that kind of hypothetical situation. I say that just to give you an idea of what the next generation of young adults may look like, especially with this kind of rhetoric aimed at fixing our boy’s!

Most of the discussions in this class had to do with the worst, most psycho behavior from psycho men and conflating that behavior with masculinity, calling it and blanketing all is dudes as toxic. I know y’all are aware because I’ve heard your podcasts and read your articles. For me, it isn’t about trying to pit this gender against that gender, or let the actions of a minority speak for the majority. Early in the semester, I tried standing my ground by giving examples of things good dudes do to actually help our society and protect women, but I was always outnumbered and never really got taken seriously. It got to the point where I just went to class, didn’t participate in discussions, and rushed out at the end. It felt like that course had no intention of seeking any middle ground on anything or to actually have discussion on how boys and girls can coexist!

I’m a firm believer in the fact that one part of being a man is to protect and defend those that are being taken advantage of, or those that may not be able to defend themselves. That means you stand up for people, men and women alike! I have a strong desire to help those that need help, and if that means sacrificing my body or my life so others may live, then so be it! I feel like a lot of dudes feel this way, but maybe my point of view is distorted because in the Army, I was surrounded by dudes that lived by that kind of mindset. And maybe I sold myself short by more or less giving up on discussions in that class. I didn’t continue standing up for defending my kind, but I couldn’t seem to get anyone to agree or at least hear me out about dudes serving a pretty substantial purpose in our society. Of course, men do more than just defend and protect, and of course it isn’t just exclusive to men, but anytime someone stops a psycho with a gun at a mall, a theater, or a school, its always a man that does that! Anytime the evil of this world rears it’s nasty head, it’s mostly men that stop it. Women do these things too, but we usually look to our men to step in to quell this kind of stuff. I don’t shortchange the kind of things women bring to the table as well, because women have demonstrated time and again that they’re more than capable of keeping the peace and pushing our society in a positive direction. Men need women, and women need men, and I can’t see any two ways around that.

Sorry this is so long, I’m probably just rambling at this point, but what I mean to say about that course is that it was my first real experience with feminism and instead of tolerance and good will, I was consistently met with hostility and judgement based on me being a dude, plus I’m white, so that didn’t help either lol. I’ve had experiences like this in other classes as well. I’ve been on a college campus since 2016, so I’m not really sure what the way of thinking off campus may be anymore, but I don’t think this way of thinking or living is the norm. I think there are only certain areas of our society that push this stuff, but as it relates to college course, I think it just drives a wedge between people and hinders our futures together. I just want men and women to get back to working together and stop seeing each other as the enemy! Rant over! Thanks for listening!

Keep doing what you’re doing! I don’t think women like y’all rare, I just think most women with conservative values are attacked and ridiculed for making those beliefs and convictions known, as if they’re brainwashed or something! But y’all are such a refreshing example for men and women with conservative values to speak up! Thank you for what you do! Keep at it, huh!

Respectfully,

Ryan
Political Science Student

Good stuff, isn’t it?

Anyway, we need more men like Ryan.