As I was listening to the radio today, I heard that a recent study¹ found my hometown of Cincinnati to be #4 out of the top five manliest cities in America. However, here are the criteria for evaluation:

1. Number of professional sports teams.
2. Use of tools and hardware.
3. Frequency of monster-truck rallies.

That’s it; no joke. Finally, the keys to true masculinity have been made known to us. And, thank goodness, it only takes three things: sports, tools, and monster trucks.

While I fully realize that this study was for entertainment purposes only, I must say that I don’t buy into the idea that Cincinnati is a manly city. Sure, sports may reflect the fact that God made man with a natural drive toward mission and conquest. Tools perhaps reflect man’s God-given nature to build and restore. And monster trucks, well, they could reflect the passion for strength and intensity that, once again, God built into man. But “macho-ness” is not manliness, and, while I realize this study was not intended to be serious, our society has some fundamental misconceptions about masculinity that are leading us down a dangerous path.

In reality, most men in our culture have no idea how to actually be men; fathers aren’t instructing their sons, the public schools sure aren’t teaching it, and good role models are hard to come by. Look at the way men are presented on television sitcoms; husbands are generally into “macho” activities but also happen to be complete idiots with no idea how to take care of their wives and families (specifically, I think of Tim Allen’s character on Home Improvement or Kevin James’ character on The King of Queens, but there are plenty of other examples). Therefore, our concept of what is “masculine” involves much of the following:

• Red meat
• Poker
• Chest hair
• Grunting
• Flatulence & the infamous “pull my finger” trick
• Cars or, even better, trucks
• Beer
• Laziness
• Blood & sweat, but never tears
• Hunting
• Video games
• Intellectual and emotional shallowness
• Belly flab
• Primitive camping
• War, weapons and the military
• Clogging up the toilet
• Starting firesand, yes,  
• Sports
• Tools
• Monster truck rallies

Of course, not all of these things are necessarily wrong; however, when they supplant true masculinity, there is a problem. In fact, many of us try to fake real masculinity through them; we reject the purpose that God has given us and try to replace it with a few behaviors that we think will make us look like masculine men. To be sure, we can enjoy red meat, beer, camping, and sports, even to the glory of God, but when we turn to such things to escape our calling as men, we are only fooling ourselves. Poor masculine leadership is essentially what started and now sustains the feminist movement. This city needs men who will step up, be responsible and intelligent, provide for their families, lay down their lives for their wives, discipline and train their children, and, above all, preach the gospel. And unfortunately, I have yet to see this in any significant capacity. Sorry Cincinnati, I don’t think you’re really that manly.

I do want to add a caution, however, to what I’ve said. It’s quite easy to blog about masculinity and even make controversial statements that don’t go over too well in a hyper-egalitarian society. The difficult thing, however, is to practice what we preach. We are lazy, prideful, sinful human beings, and unfortunately, we can talk about masculinity all we want without getting anywhere. It’s easy to think that being masculine requires that we boldly announce our views of manhood to the world, but ultimately, the problem is not a philosophical one, but a pastoral one. It involves real people, not just ideas, and getting into arguments over the web is not only fruitless, but it often constructs unnecessary barriers between us and our opponents. Should we be bold and forthright about our convictions regarding biblical masculinity? Absolutely. I am not suggesting compromise. However, we must not sacrifice meekness in the name of boldness, and we must not reduce a relational problem to an academic one. Furthermore, our desire to see change should begin with the relationships around us. We want to fight battles that can be won, not battles that only serve to further escalate the war. In postmodern America, this will take some tact, but above all, it will require legitimacy, sincerity, dedication, and careful and intentional relationships with those around us. So, with that being said, who wants to go camping?

¹This study was apparently done by Sperling’s BestPlaces as part of a promotion by Combos snacks. Obviously it is not serious research.