While the so-called “manosphere” is an “awful” representation of the “desires of the flesh,” it is — at its core — a reaction “to the progressive erasing of gender.”
Dr. Seth Troutt, teaching pastor at Ironwood Church in the Phoenix metro area, is the author of the new book, “Authentic Masculinity: Leaving Behind the Counterfeits for God’s Design,” and he recently appeared on CBN’s “Faith in Culture,” where he spoke out about the growing male-centric phenomenon.
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While it existed for years as a nascent movement tucked in the shadows of the internet, the manosphere has, in recent years, punched its way into the mainstream, with increasingly well-known names like Andrew Tate, Myron Gaines, and Braden Peters, a young man who goes by the name “Clavicular” online.
“It’s a reaction to the progressive leftism that has said there is no man and woman that is inherent, that [it’s] all a social construct,” he said. “And the promotion of androgyny, which is the praise of men and women being fundamentally interchangeable, that kind of third-wave feminism that says that there are no distinctives between men and women.”
The secular left, he asserted, has presented an “androgynous vision” of the male and female sexes. While the two, Troutt said, are “fundamentally similar,” they are “not interchangeable.”
“When Adam sees Eve in the garden, he says, ‘Bone of my bone, flesh my flesh. Finally, one that’s like me,'” he said. “And you know, that’s my paraphrase. I think there is, like, a real image of God similarity that we have as humans. But God doesn’t make any generic humans; He makes males and females.”
An “overreaction to the progressive erasing of gender,” Troutt called the “unhealthy” manosphere “a type of thing that reduces men to animals” and encourages “the pursuit of sex and power and money.”
One solution to this problem, the pastor said, is addressing the pandemic of loneliness many men face.
According to recent data from Gallup, a quarter of men in the U.S. ages 15-34 reported feeling lonely a lot of the previous day, which is significantly higher than the national average as well as the rate for young women, both at 18%. Additionally, men are four times more likely to die by suicide than women.
A central tenet of Troutt’s view of biblical masculinity is the cultivation of “meaningful, intimate male friendships.” He pointed to the relationship between Jonathan and David in the Old Testament — a bond many within “progressive wings of the church” falsely categorize as homosexual.
Troutt dismissed that incorrect interpretation as “sexualizing” and “dismissing,” a view he believes has done damage to the potential for deep, plutonic bonds between men within the church.
He said he’d like to see a culture within Christendom of men who aren’t just committed to their wives for life but are committed, too, to lifelong friendships that help them navigate different seasons over the course of their lives.
“[Having] high-quality friends is a real blessing,” said Troutt. “If all you have is a wife or if all you have is some internet community, you’re going to be in a dark place at some point really soon and find yourself alone.”
Watch our full conversation with Troutt in the video above.
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