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America spent two decades trying to “fix” masculinity. It nearly broke the country — and the guys who complained the loudest about it turned out to be the ones with the least ability to fix it. America needs manly men — not men who are afraid of their masculinity, and not men who only talk about it.

Let me back up. In 2000, Christina Hoff Sommers published “The War Against Boys,” documenting how American schools had begun treating normal male behavior as something to be diagnosed and medicated. A seven-year-old was suspended for pointing a pencil like a gun at his friend. A boy in California was punished for running during recess and nearly suspended for jumping over a bench. Schools banned tag and dodgeball. Boys were five times more likely to be expelled from preschool than girls and accounted for 70% of suspensions — not for anything dangerous, but for roughhousing, defiance, and being loud. Instead of addressing the gap, institutions doubled down, remaking classrooms around female learning styles. They criminalized the “bad guy” play that men have channeled into building civilizations since the dawn of time. Almost nobody listened to Sommers, or they mocked her. For over a decade, the project to dismantle masculinity stayed contained in academia, slowly working its way through education policy like a parasite.

Then it broke containment. By 2015, the national psychedelic trip we now refer to as “wokeism” was reaching its crescendo, and men — specifically straight, traditional men — were its favorite target. “Toxic masculinity” migrated from academic journals to Thanksgiving dinner. “Men are trash” became something people said at brunch without flinching. “Mansplaining” entered the lexicon. Gillette released an ad lecturing its own customers about the sins of manhood. No razors, just shame. Hollywood gender-swapped “Ghostbusters” and sidelined Luke Skywalker for a new female lead. In 2019, the American Psychological Association issued guidelines pathologizing “traditional masculinity” as harmful. The message from every direction was the same: Manhood was broken, and women would fix it.

I had a front row seat as a columnist for Playboy, the most famous men’s magazine in the world, from 2015 to 2017 — the exact moment it stopped knowing how to talk to men. The organization was paralyzed by fear and overrun with young liberal women and gay men, which rendered it incapable of meeting the moment. Everything about the brand signaled apology. Playboy should have held the line. It was a wide-open lane. Instead, it followed every other men’s magazine in the same direction: less for the man’s man, more for the gay man and queer woman. Had it doubled down on unapologetically speaking to red-blooded American men, it could have led a renaissance. Instead, it chose surrender.

And in the space created when the culture forced men to be small, scummy opportunists filled the void. We got the Tates. The Sneakos. Parodies of men. Guys who are what a teenager thinks masculinity looks like when he doesn’t have a good father: flashy Rolexes, rented Lamborghinis, and endless talk. Talk, talk, talk. The guys who screamed loudest about the feminization of America were engaged in an inherently feminine activity. They were podcasting. They were sitting behind desks and running their mouths. And when you put men in a space that’s fundamentally about talking, their conflict becomes female-coded: reputational attacks, betrayal narratives, emotional manipulation, hissy fits. In real life, male interaction is moderated by the threat of getting punched in the face. Online, that’s gone. So the most effective tactics are the ones women use. These guys didn’t fight the feminization of culture. They became it.

I feel privileged to have known men who stormed the beaches at Normandy, who fought in the South Pacific, who came home and never spoke of it. Real men don’t whine about sacrifice. They make it. And I feel sorry for younger generations who haven’t known men like that — men who felt proud to serve, who understood trade-offs, who didn’t see the world in black and white. Young men are desperate for identity, and if you don’t give them Captain America, Ted Williams, and George Washington, they’ll find Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate. Jordan Peterson identified this collapse in meaning early; it makes young men terrifyingly easy to radicalize.

And now these same guys — the ones who spent years raging about how pussified America is, the longhouse, the feminization of men, soy boys, turning the frogs gay — are now having hissy fits because America is actually being masculine. Militarily masculine. The real deal. And they’re whining about how they feel betrayed. “We’re not dying for Israel.” You’re not dying for anyone, buddy! You’re not dying for America. You’re not dying for anything except your subscriber count. You spent years cosplaying as warriors, and the moment actual sacrifice entered the conversation, you folded like every other fraud who has ever confused talking with doing.

Compare the Biden-era Army recruitment ad, an animated spot about a soldier raised by two moms marching in a pride parade, with what’s coming out of the Pentagon now. A Special Forces trainer deadlifting 500 pounds: “Stronger people are harder to kill.” Soldiers on a firing range: “We train until we can’t get it wrong.” Enlistment is at a 15-year high. When you stop apologizing for what the military is and start showing men what it demands, they show up. That’s what real masculinity looks like when it’s not being run through the filter of “how is this going to make Karen feel?”

The culture is shifting everywhere, thanks in part to comedian Joe Rogan, who held the line and built a parallel comedy establishment that is unapologetically masculine, irreverent, and enormous. Bud Light — the brand that nearly destroyed itself partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney — signed as its new spokesperson Shane Gillis, a comedian who’d been dropped from SNL only to return as a host. And on February 22 — 46 years to the day from America’s “Miracle on Ice” — the U.S. men’s hockey team beat Canada in overtime for our first Olympic gold since 1980. Those players stood at the State of the Union, grinning from ear to ear, and got a standing ovation. My nephews are obsessed with them. They see those radiant smiles and that pride in America, and they want to emulate it.

In his post-game interview, hockey star Jack Hughes said, “This is all about our country right now. I love the USA. I love my teammates. It’s unbelievable. The U.S. hockey brotherhood is so strong and we had so much support from ex players, and I’m so proud to be American today. So proud.” That’s not some guy ranting into a webcam about alpha males; it’s the real thing, and young men can feel the difference.

The 2024 election was, in many ways, a referendum on all of this. The entire post-election media analysis centered on one question: How did Democrats lose young men? The answer was simple. They’d spent a decade telling young men they were the problem, and eventually, young men believed them and voted accordingly.

Saving this country is going to require things that make some people uncomfortable. It is going to require men who are willing to be strong without apology, to serve without being asked, and to lead without waiting for permission. For 20 years, we told men to sit down. The men who are standing back up — not the talkers, not the grifters, but the ones who actually build and serve and sacrifice — are the ones who will matter.

But I’m not going to speak for men. Instead, I’ll let Sergeant Dan Hollaway, 82nd Airborne Infantry, share his thoughts on the resurgence of American masculinity.

“Masculinity is not a social accessory,” he told me. “It is the backbone of every civilization that has ever endured. Masculinity began as an unspoken contract with reality: I will go where it is dangerous so others don’t have to. If certain burdens are not carried, then people die. This is the natural law of masculinity, and it has never changed. For a generation, America’s masculinity was mocked, undermined, and treated as something dangerous or obsolete — and many men simply withdrew. But that retreat is ending, and as men return to strength, discipline, and responsibility, the benefits are already becoming visible. American pride is on the rise, and we have the unique opportunity to save the greatest country in the history of the world by simply being men.”

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Bridget Phetasy is a writer and comedian. She’s the host of the show Dumpster Fire and podcast Walk-Ins Welcome. Find more of her writing on her Substack Beyond Parody at phetasy.com.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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America Tried To ‘Fix’ Men For Two Decades. Here’s What It Got Instead.