Anthony Bradley in a candid article, ends with this challenge. “I’d recommend that people stop whining about ‘Andrew Tate’ and instead, out-complete him and others with better content that fits with their view of world if they think the manosphere is a problem.” As a member of “the silent generation” and a retired senior male, but still writing bogs about masculinity in our culture, I can only express my comments as a concerned senior. But I can speak as a male who has been on an intentional masculine journey, having sought spiritual wholeness in following Jesus.
Bradley is writing about the “manosphere” and the young men who are gravitating to their messaging. He notes, “this digital migration reveals less about the seductive power of online characters and more about the profound dereliction of duty by the very cultural and religious institutions designed to forge masculine virtue. What happens when the wellsprings of genuine guidance run dry, and who precisely rushes in to fill the void?”
Gleaning result from a survey of over 3,000 young men (16-25) across the UK, US, and Australia, he found 61% of young men in the UK regularly engaged with masculinity influencers online. The influencers were most popular among white, older (within the 16-25 range) full-time employed, university-educated young men from high-income households. 83% believe men must be providers, 70% believe women have it easier than men, while 67% believe feminism is used to keep men down. 50% found the content to be entertaining, 47% motivating, and 43% as thought-provoking.
Young men are seeking guidance online in dealing with modern masculinity. There seems to be a “siren song of confident, powerful men promising direction to legions of younger men adrift in a sea of cultural confusion.” Young men gravitate toward the loudest and seemingly most self-assured voices, expounding stoicism, self-reliance and control. “These online figures often offer pathways emphasizing action, reclaiming power, or adhering to specific codes, bypassing the often messy and difficult work of risk-taking, repentance, vulnerability, relational healing, and enlisting in the work of fighting evil.”
What young men need, Bradley maintains is encouragement, “which involves viewing them not as problems needing solutions, but as sources of potential value to those around them.” A vacuum of virtuous, masculine leadership is found in the church. What is needed includes, “the rare combination of intellectual rigor, deep compassion, unwavering conviction, and the proper confidence of a man submitted first to God – a model of virtuous masculinity equipped to truly mentor the next generation.”
“The choice confronting us is stark,” according to Bradley, “Either we undertake the demanding work of cultivating environments where authentic, virtuous masculine leadership can actually flourish……..or we resign ourselves to watching successive generations of young men seek affirmation and direction from the distorted reflections offered by digital hucksters and failed archetypes. The consequences of continued apathy are not merely cultural, but profoundly spiritual, bearing witness to our own institutional failure.”
Bradley has given the church a warning about the siren call of the male influencers on the internet. There is a void in our culture that the influencers are filling among young men. We as a church have not been able to fill that void with our messaging of the “Good News.” I agree that spiritual formation of young men in our day will involve risk-taking that will be “messy and difficult.” Are men’s groups open to such call. Young men need the encouragement of older men, who are mentors, having grown up in the hostile culture where men are considered toxic. Bradley warns us of our “apathy” and our failure to fill the vacuum in the lives of younger men.
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