Masculinity

A Word On Masculinity From A 13th Century Poet

69 Comments

The core of masculinity does not derive
from being male,
nor friendliness from those who console.
Your old grandmother says, “Maybe you shouldn’t
go to school. You look a little pale.”
Run when you hear that.
A father’s stern slaps are better.
Your bodily soul wants comforting.
The severe father wants spiritual clarity.
He scolds but eventually
leads you into the open.
Pray for a tough instructor
to hear and act and stay within you.
~ Rumi

Translation?

(1-2)Being masculine does not derive from simply having a penis, it’s earned.

(3-6) Keep people who want to coddle you at arms length. Those who advise you to “take it easy” or “slow down” may not intentionally seek to harm you but if you heed their advice they will in the long run. Chances are you will hear these words from a woman. It’s no coincidence Rumi chose a grandmother as an example.

(7-9) An ass beating will build more character than a consolation hug. Your body will naturally prefer the latter. I know mine did when my boxing instructor would yell or hit me upside the head whenever I did something wrong.

Bodily comfort and spiritual clarity are posed as opposites in these lines. Could they simultaneously exist? Thinking back to some of the things I have accomplished that I am most proud of, I don’t think they can. My body always fought going to the gym, reading, studying, approaching a girl, even as I write this post my mind protests because it would rather be surfing mindlessly through the internet.

(10-13) There’s no replacement for the tough-as-nails male figure who will be unyielding when you beg for an easy route. His methods might frustrate you at times, hell it may even cause you to throw a tantrum or two but they will help you achieve your goals. This is the instructor you should seek out so you can internalize his habits to apply later on in life.

For most this male figure is a father. Sadly nowadays more and more men are being raised without knowing their fathers, let alone learning life lessons from them. As good of a mother as you may have no woman can ever teach a man how to be a man. Despite what the media says women and men are not the same, we are wired differently. To these men I would recommend they find a mentor (coach, professor, etc.) or learn as much as they can from different men that are admirable.

What happens when you raise a generation of sons without fathers or male mentorship? Well, just look around. You get males who don’t know how to deal with women, are insecure, oversensitive, and complain at the sight of anything that requires real any work.

Conclusion

The core of masculinity derives from a masculine mentor and hard work.

Read More: “Art Of Manliness” Is Poisoning The Concept Of Masculinity With Disney Lifestyle Advice

69 thoughts on “A Word On Masculinity From A 13th Century Poet”

  3. Here is the idea masculine man. He was a carpenters son, learned, the trade, he was a teacher, a minister, a doctor, a healer, a prophet and just happened to be the Son of God. He was never lazy, cried only when it mattered to, led men and women, worked hard, took the most Galactic beat down in the history of man, died, beat death and resurrected himself.
    Top that!
    Oh, and his name is Jesus Christ, among many other names that people have called him. If you can find me a more many man, I don’t know who it is.

    1. Before his name was “Jesus”, it was Horis, Dionysus and, Hercules.
      Your Bronze Age bedtime story is plagiarized garbage from other Mediterranean cultures.
      Peddle your nonsense elsewhere.

      1. I have no reason to argue with you. Either you believe or you don’t.
        But the topic of the article was masculinity. I gave my example.

      2. You are correct. And so is Mr. Direct.
        In my view, the point is not that the Jesus story is plagiarized from earlier cultures so much as it is consistent with similar stories told in other cultures. The fact that all cultures on some level share the same mythologies suggests that those mythologies are allegorical; they point towards an ultimate truth greater than us, and outside of the stories themselves. One story does not come from another. Rather, they all point us towards something unknown and unknowable that is beyond us, towards which we strive. Striving towards the unknown is self-improvement, which is itself what ROK is all about. Jesus, Horis, Dionysus, and Hercules all exist: you can look them up in any dictionary or on teh interwebs. Even an atheist has a concept of the god he denies…

        1. Good point – they’re all just amalgams or extensions of The Hero’s Journey monomyth as researched by Joseph Campbell.

        2. “An atheist thinks in terms of the God whom he denies…”
          Well put. I’d never considered it from that angle.

      3. The nonsense is the idiotic belief that Horus, Dionysus and Hercules are similar to the Jesus story – you have to ignore the actual stories of all these characters to believe the nonsense you are peddling.
        It has been debunked repeatedly and its considered fringe nonsense by actual historians and people who study mythologies. There isn’t an all out conspiracy to hide the truth! Educate yourself!

    2. Even if I pretend for a second that Jesus is not a character in a fable, I can’t see how or why he would be considered masculine. For example: The meek shall inherit the Earth? Turn the other cheek?

      1. The example wasn’t Hollywood. Otherwise Jesus would have pulled the nails out with his teeth, uprooted the cross and used it to lay out roman soldiers left and right. After a chariot chase along the Via Delorossa he would have Broken down the doors to Pontious Pilote’s palace and pulled the cowering governor from under his bed and said:
        “God forgiffs, I don’t” [Arnold Schwarzenegger accent].

      2. It takes more strength of will to turn the other cheek than it does to beat the man to death got striking you. He said the meek shall inherit the earth, not the lazy, slovenly do nothing people.

        3. You’ve got to think of things in terms of:
          A. The audience JC was preaching to.
          B. The translation from the Greek by king James’ scholars.
          In this case “meek” might mean the poor and the humble rather than the great and high born.

        4. The comment still stands. 😉
          It was however, a useful by-line often used by the great and the high-born to submit the meek into a life of conformity and subservience.

        5. Meekness before God. It takes strength to be meek. Otherwise you have a hypocritical wuss who is afraid to fight trying to claim moral high ground by calling himself a pacifist.

    3. as much respect I have for Jesus Christ. Out of all the religions that I have researched I think Islam and Sikhism are the most masculine. They both are expected to live to a certain masculine ideal(with some morality of course for discipline),expected traditional family units,discipline,be stoic to your emotions and expect you not to fear death(martyrdom and sainthood)..The men in these religions did face hardships growing up but rose to the occasion and fought back as a man should. They expect first to be good at “being a man”. Be that strong alpha head of the household to provide and discipline(rationally of course since they are expected to be disciplined)….coptic christian and orthodox jews can fall in this category. Masculine to the core.
      Im sorry to say that non orthodox christianty and judasim seems to be more beta since it seems to promote a victimhood mentalty(turning the other cheek) probaly cause of political correctness altering the texts of the Bible and Torah. Plus it promotes you to be a “good man” such as sweet kind gentle like spare the road and spoil the child or be passive and forgiving. basically a good beta provider.
      Hinduism and budhism are in the middle since they have no standards to uphold,instead it teaches you to be content and go with what you “feel”, hence why it attracts western women and liberal pajyama boys. But a strict culture balances it out.
      Athesim could be a librarl thing to since they promote “gendar equality” and essientally reject many “backward masculine” tradtion and rather be known as “progressive”…like some superiority complex

        1. true but it does sound like a NAWALT arguement. But for some reason why are most librarls atheist or athests that are librarl. Never heard of a right wing atheist but could be possible such as being in a fellow cohesive athest group and sticking to own tribe like the pygmys(they are an atheist culture) or even among hindu circles agnostic is a type of belief of no belief.

      2. Zen buddhism is very masculine. It doesn’t at all teach you to go with what you ‘feel’. It’s actually pretty much the opposite. It teaches discipline and control.

        1. my bad didnt know budhism had various sects. Zen budhism is that the original budhism? or is it a sect that came later? The ones we here in the west is the “do what you feel hippy eat pray love” types.

        4. Buddhism became quite masculine when it arrived in Japan as the Japanese have a very masculine culture. The Buddhism here in North America is very feminine and hippyish indeed. Japanese Pure Land is another masculine sect that catered to a lot of samurai warriors.

        5. That image of Japan is disappearing. Look up the phenomenon of “the Grass Eating Man.”
          Then, there’s the whole sub-culture of Japanese cartoons and comic books. Now, there’s a group of emasculated men if ever there were any.

      3. Islam is least masculine religion in the world. These men are told to kill themselves because they can’t get laid. It doesn’t get more Beta than that. They parallel women to Gods as they value them for a) being a virgin – any deprived fatty can be a virgin b) being a fatty – fat women are valued in the Islamic world. They can’t look at women .They have multiple wives which means more providing ego harder working. They prohibit any fun sexual experience. To make up for it all you can give the occasional beating which means shit because women respond far more well to psychological conditioning than a backhand.
        As for Right Wing atheists look for the likes of Christopher Hitchens.
        Mormons seem to know how to control their women.
        As for a the model masculine philosophical system i think atheist with an Nietzschean/ existential bend. One who believes that they can gain power through strength and the importance of being resolute whle not falling for the trap of thinking they need to save the world.

        1. You have a weird take on Islam. The average fella in a muslim country, even a mosque going fella has about as much in common with those weirdos as you or I have with Christian fundamentalists. Islam is primarily a guideline on how a righteous person should live.

      4. “Im sorry to say that non orthodox christianty and judasim seems to be more beta since it seems to promote a victimhood mentalty(turning the other cheek) probaly cause of political correctness altering the texts of the Bible and Torah. Plus it promotes you to be a “good man” such as sweet kind gentle like spare the road and spoil the child or be passive and forgiving. basically a good beta provider.”
        I believe when he said to “turn the other cheek” the moral of the story was not “stand there and let someone beat the shit out of you” so much as not to take retaliatory action against someone for insulting your dignity (which is exactly what a slap in the face is). There’s a difference between promoting a victim mentality and letting bullshit roll of you like water off a duck’s back. Very few people (me included) have that kind of restraint.
        The maxim “spare the rod and spoil the child” isn’t in there. It was adapted from a verse in Proverbs that states that he who spares the rod hates his son. In other words, if you let your kid get away with murder, you’ll have a rotten disrespectful little shit running around in no time flat. Also, wearing the pants in the family and keeping your bitch in check is a recurring biblical theme.
        I leave you with one of my favorite scriptures, Proverbs 21:9. “It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.” Lol

      5. Your mentioning forgiveness in this context is misplaced. Forgiveness is about the victims relieving them self of the burden of resentment and hatred. It doesn’t absolve the perpetrator. You can forgive someone and still punish them, because the lesson of action and consequence still has to be taught.

    4. what a load of crap. as a young boy i was forced to read the bible and i remember the passage where, before the crucifixion, jesus was all whiny and like “why me, father??”. yeah, such masculinity indeed. barf.

      1. Have you ever been beaten severely, then scourged, then made to carry a big wooden log on the same back and body that was ripped to shreds for over a mile, then nailed to two beams of wood and hoisted into the air to hang by those nails until you were dead all the while being mocked and spat on the entire time….didn’t think so. But hey, if you could do that no problem, I’d call you a very masculine man.

    5. Thank you for the praise my son! Amazing!
      This article is great. One point many overlook: fathers with partial custody of their children might treat them like little pussies in order to keep their custody. When instead of brow-beating kids for being little assholes, instead the father softly disciplines with a weak hand. This pussy behavior is so the kids don’t tell mom, and so he doesn’t have to make another appearance in family court. Yet another way the government puts a gun in the real husbands’ back and then takes his place (and wealth).
      Don’t get married, don’t have children. Stop feeding the government with more slaves.

  4. Nice …… however, you are better off to stop looking for pie in the sky solutions and look within and mentor yourself…. you will find your own mentor will be far tougher than any old man…
    That voice in your head that drives you mad everyday – he knows more about your strengths and weakness than any stranger.
    Better still he’s available immediately with no excuses.

    1. You did not have a mentor?
      Looking back from where I am today, I realize that I could not trust the voice in my head. When it said, “do, win, compete” etc. it was right. But for the “how” it was not reliable.
      That old man – he knew the “how.” The essential “how” for a man has not changed for time immortal. It’s the same now as it was for the Greeks (when there were once a great nation state).

  5. Great article. Although there’s a difference between an instructor who is tough on you and pushes you, and an instructor who just doles out harsh criticism for every single mistake. Experience shows that positive reinforcement works better than negative reinforcement. But as you say, even negative reinforcement is better than no reinforcement i.e. staying in the comfort zone.

    1. Yes – A teacher worth his salt knows how to balance “tough love” with warmth and praise. Any figure throughout history who has compelling attractiveness knows hows to utilise both for maximum effect.

    2. The genius of Government to instill No-Fault Divorce laws and a Socialist state (to take care of single mothers with HIGH taxes (coercion)) created this BRAIN IMBALANCE amongst all divorced children (male & female).
      The mother instills too much right brain emotional slave-like mentality into the son. The father is supposed to teach left brain, logical, action-like mentality to balance the brain. This results in emotional weak men and slutty women.
      We need to boycott the Government as much as we can, not the divorced children affected by it.

  7. men are made,women just are. This is why not many guys call themselves men cause we dont have those traditional masculine attributes anymore. The only ones that do are immigrant parents from 3rd world countrys that refuse to assimulate(and rightfully so).
    Women wanted equality by feminizing men and masculinizing women with special laws and privileges. But if those women were raised the traditional masculine(actual work and toughness) way like boys they wouldnt handle it and rush to the kitchen in their heels. Dont belive me look at USSR(strong masuline women) now Russia(most femine women).
    Its true we do perfer to be babyed and pampered thats why when we immigrant descented kids rebeled against tradition, we just set ourselves off to a downfall just like our friends. Then we wonder why we arent as masculine because we wanted the easy way out….freedom,having it easy and no expectations on manhood ruins you.

    1. Also, the third world immigrants are not the only group that has masculine attributes. Those father or grandfathers that where from the 30s, 40s or 50s still teach there male offspring or grandchildren how to be men.

  9. The feminist state has been set up to reach what they think is an ideal state: Boys and young men who have no male role models. I suppose they think that will beat the “patriarchy” out of us.
    Nothing could be worse, however. A father draws and enforces boundaries. A father instinctively pushes his son to fight, to compete, to do the hard stuff. That ultimately benefits everyone in society.
    Thus, society is lost.
    Every chance you get, undermine the feminist state. Withhold from it the masculine things the feminist state thinks you owe it. Keep everything you can for yourself.
    Or, just leave the country.

    1. Lets take some credit where credit is due. Fathers were flaking out on their kids long before the feminist state – happily leaving them with mothers who are not possibly able to provide everything a male child needs. The best thing you can do as a man is to be there for your kid (you don’t have to be with the mother to do that) – especially your male kid. Being a man isn’t just about creating and fighting, its about accepting responsibility.

    2. Speaking of masculinity, I’m sure a lot of you heard about that kid in Pennsylvania who went on a rampage, stabbing 20 people at his high school and also the epidemic of school shootings in general.
      Notice how all of these school shootings and stabbings arise from boys who are being bullied? If there’s ever an example of the Emasculation of the American Male, this phenomenon is it.
      American public schools go out of their way to emasculate boys as much as possible, which is why we are seeing them act out this way. They are taught not to be assertive and to not stand up for themselves, which is what feeds the never-ending cycle of bullying.
      The consequences of this on American Society are becoming increasingly damaging to our country.

  10. “I’d rather surf mindlessly around the internet”
    Well what the fuck are you doing now?
    Also, fucking lol, because you translate that thing in your everyday life, e.g. spending hours on the internet. That’s your fucking life. And visiting manosphere during your long internet streaks makes you feel accomplished.
    Go tell your dad how much a man you are for the hours you spend on the internet.
    Fucking internet-addict faggot

  11. Absolutely correct. When I was in school, I always learned the most from, and earned the highest grades from, the toughest professors. They were all men. No way in hell would I ever not be prepared for class for fear of an intellectual ass-whipping, but more importantly because I couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing them by laziness, weakness, or failure.

  12. Just want to say that as a frequent purveyor of ROK this is an article that should be shoved to the forefront when this “movement’s” direction and motives are questioned. Let it be written, let it be done.

  14. In Toronto, a friend had to do community work and parenting courses because he spanked his child in public. It was a regular slap and spank, nothing more….then the govt got involved

    1. ONLY the Government is allowed to use violence against people.
      They don’t people fighting back, that’s why it is done like that.
      Also that’s why they are going after guns too..

  15. (10-13) Ha, absolutely hated my OCS Marine drill instructor, but he did help mold me into a better officer and man, so for that I could never do anything but have respect for him.
    It’s unfortunate but you left one out on the last paragraph, you also get less competition. I can’t remember who mentioned it a few months ago in an article, but like game “you can lead em to water, but you can’t make them drink it.” Without male mentorship you get someone that should not be able to compete against you as an alpha and with this lack of mentorship being so rampant in society today, you should literally feel like a boss all day, everyday.
    Good article and breakdown.

  16. The genius of Government (mind control) to instill No-Fault Divorce laws and a Socialist state (to take care of single mothers with HIGH taxes (coercion)) created this BRAIN IMBALANCE amongst all divorced children (male & female).
    The mother instills too much right brain emotional slave-like mentality into the son. The father is supposed to teach left brain, logical, action-like mentality to balance the brain. This results in emotional weak men and slutty women.
    We need to fight the Government, not the divorced children affected by it.

  21. It takes skill to be mentor, not every over 40 Alpha is suitable to be one. But none the less, if you search hard enough, you’ll find one. Great article. Would’ve come in perfectly have I known these aspects earlier.

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