I am always looking for voices calling our culture back from the brink of gender confusion regarding toxic masculinity and the relentless attack on patriarchy. To my surprise, Jerry Seinfeld has been making his voice heard in the media. It seems like he is calling us back to a “common culture” of the early 1960’s, when gender roles were not so confusing. He laments the decline of “dominant masculinity,” which he suggests has led to the disintegration of the clear social hierarchy that once maintained American culture. He made these remarks on a town hall at SiriusEM Studios, hosted by journalist Bari Weiss.
Seinfeld noted that a “key element” missing in modern society is “an agreed-upon hierarchy,” which he said “is absolutely vaporized in today’s moment.” He even had the courage to point out the decline of traditionally masculine men in today’s culture as “a symptom of the disintegrating social hierarchy.” Seinfeld noted that people who lean on the horn and drive in the crazy way they drive is because they have no sense of hierarchy. “And as humans” he believed, “we don’t really feel comfortable like that.”
While he admired traditional masculinity, Seinfeld admitted he did not epitomize such traits. Looking back at his youth, he admitted, “I’ve always wanted to be a real man. I never made it.” He looked up to men like John F. Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, Howard Cosell, and Sean Connery as examples of a real man. He admits what he called “the toxic thing,” while still still having admiration for a real man. Seinfeld also talked about “toxic masculinity” with Bill Maher on his podcast, during which Maher ascribed the decline of men in part to rampant perverted pornography.
Seinfeld, who is usually not overtly political, has complained recently about the far-left “woke” culture destroying entertainment and pushing people from comedy because it is not policed by anyone. “‘This is the result of the extreme left and PC crap,” he lamented, “and people worrying so much about offending other people.”
At a recent 2024 commencement address at Duke University, many pro-Palestinian students walked out in protest of the Jewish comedian. Seinfeld told Weiss that such display against him were silly, noting, “These people should focus their frustration over the geopolitical situation at those individuals who have control over the decisions.”
As a male, striving to have a biblical view of reality, and a male who also lived through the 60’s and 70’s with Jerry Seinfeld, I have experienced the disappearance of male leadership in our society. I am especially grieved that the young men of Generation Z and the Millennials have so few exemplars of wholesome male models. I felt as I read several accounts of his interview with Ms. Weiss, that Seinfeld was longing for the old days.
Those days are gone. But men are being called again to embrace a God-given hierarchy, expressed in a divine order of authority. In the beginning, “God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15). Man was first. Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen. 2:18). Eve was to be his helper. They lived in harmony without conflict or competition. “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” (Gen. 2:25).
Exemplary living starts with men being under authority. “Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another…..” (I Peter 5:5).
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