I have, from youth, liked superhero stories, as well as other kinds of action hero stories. But I wonder to what extent some of them encourage something that might be accurately labeled “toxic masculinity.” A more precise label might be “strength privilege.”
Before I delve into the pop culture side of things, let’s establish that Proverbs is concerned with strength.
Strength & Wisdom
That Proverbs concludes with strength is explicitly obvious. King Lemuel learned to recite from his mother: “What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings” (Proverbs 31:2–3 ESV emphasis added). This is part of an introduction to the acrostic poem that King Lemuel’s mother had him memorize that describes the ideal wife for a righteous man and a king. She is not one who takes strength. She makes herself strong: “She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong… Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come” (Proverbs 31:17, 25 ESV).
But Proverbs doesn’t just end with strength. It is a concern throughout the book.
The first temptation facing the son (1:8), that would pull him away from wisdom (1:1-7), is recruitment into a robber gang (1:8-19). Why does a young man have to be warned against such an offer? Because a young man has recently become strong. He is an attractive recruit to those who profit from violence. “The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair” (Proverbs 20:29 ESV). Thus, he is tempted to use his strength to take perceived shortcuts to get things he wants. Proverbs later explicitly compares the ways a man might be tempted to gain wealth in contrast to a woman. “A gracious woman gets honor, and violent men get riches” (Proverbs 11:16 ESV). Solomon reiterates that such a path won’t end well. “A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself. The wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward. Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die” (11:17-19 ESV).
So the strength of the young man can be a trap. He must use it lawfully and wisely. He must not think his recent transformation allows him to get away with folly.
His strength is also a valuable resource of which he must be a good steward. In Solomon’s culture, adultery could lead to devastating debt and he warns against committing an infraction that would rob him of the benefit of his youthful strength: “And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner…” (Proverbs 5:7–10 ESV).
Thus, the ultimate strength enhancer is wisdom. She is personified as a woman starting in chapter 1 and ultimately presents herself as the one who can empower her sons (8:32).: “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; by me princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver” (Proverbs 8:12-18 ESV; bold added).
Wisdom is not one of the women who destroys kings. “She dresses herself with strength.”
Obviously, in many areas of life, the strength required is not especially muscular. “A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory” (Proverbs 24:5–6 ESV). In many ways wisdom is a kind of strength—the power to overcome an opposing force. But the strength that the son is warned against losing to indebtedness is years of physical ability that, once passed, he can never return to. The strength that allows men to be tempted to violent gain more often than women is neuro-muscular. Strength is a resource and, as I argue in my book (Amazon, Kindle), wisdom is largely about preserving and using resources rather than wasting them or using them wrongly.
By that consideration, wisdom would be about strength simply because it is a young person’s comparative resource, even if it wasn’t explicitly mentioned. Just as the Prodigal Son was foolish to waste his monetary inheritance from his father (Luke 15:12-14), so any young man would be foolish to waste his physical inheritance. We are made in such a way that we grow stronger as we leave childhood and then get weaker as we age. Again: “The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair” (Proverbs 20:29 ESV). And again, that cannot be referring to metaphorical strength. It means muscular capability.
Thus, Solomon is not “above” warning young men by using the metaphor of muscular weakness to stigmatize moral failure. “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small” (Proverbs 24:10 ESV).
“Strength Privilege”
Despite my appreciation of action shows, I really didn’t like the Marvel series “Jessica Jones” on Netflix. I’m not talking about the plots or the general moral problems (which are excessive and gratuitous in almost all Netflix TV-MA series) that Christians always face in contemporary entertainment. And I am not talking about her being a “strong female.” I don’t really mind that.
Side note: Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve always suspected a rather traditional narrative lurking behind the last few decades of female superheroes, despite all the feminist verbiage. A huge element in all action shows, especially the TV series, is melodrama. They are soap operas with fights. And it is much easier to show social upheaval with a female who is supernaturally strong. While writers work hard to complicate the lives of male superheroes, one always suspects it wouldn’t be hard for them to have a wife and family, and do their superheroics as a day job. A woman who is far stronger than all the men in her life has a ready-made source of angst. None of us wondered why Elastigirl married Mr. Incredible and not a normal man.
But something bothered me about Jessica. She was strong, but she did nothing to strengthen herself. In fact, she did everything she could to make herself weak and sick, if that were possible.
In the science fiction rules of the show, Jessica can drink constantly and engage in other unhealthy behavior because of her super strength sustains her. But it is obvious that the wise-cracking, sarcastic, antinomian alcoholic is being upheld as some kind of cultural ideal. Conveniently, Jones has a back story of abuse and manipulation that explains a lot of her behavior. But I was never able to get over the feeling that the purpose of the backstory was to create her character as a cultural icon rather than redeem her from it. She may be indestructible, but she was modeling behavior many destructible people adopt without thinking about the consequences to their own enjoyment of life.
Recently, I stumbled on a scene from a TV-edited version of the R-rated movie “The Last Boy Scout” and was reminded the problem I had with Jessica Jones had appeared much earlier in action hero shows. The premise of the 1991 movie seemed to be that men approaching middle age could let themselves become chain-smoking alcoholics and still kill multiple younger bad guys with their bare hands. The scene I saw involved him being punched by a young ex-football player, catching his fist, hurting the attacker’s hand with his iron grip, and muscling him down to the floor. To add more fantasy to the over-the-top fantasy, the protagonist was so confident (in an apathetic wise-cracking way) that he intentionally provoked the punch.
As you can tell by the title, Willis’ character was portrayed in the movie as some kind of ideal. He didn’t take care of himself because institutions (government, marriage, family) had betrayed him and disrespected him. But what person who lets himself sink into dissipation doesn’t have an excuse—especially one that blames others? The whole story seems devoted to the idea that the middle-aged male can do amazing feats of strength and skill while poisoning himself. That’s why I call it “strength privilege.” One views strength as something you can take for granted. You don’t need to preserve it. It will be there when you need it because your so righteous.
I have written elsewhere that masculinity is, of course, a gift to the world rather than a poison. But precisely because the gift is often misused, Proverbs is written against toxic masculinity. One form of misuse is to use one’s strength for exploitation and plunder. The other form is to not use it at all in the service of worthwhile endeavors: sloth.
There seems to be a kind of magical thinking that often infects otherwise rational people. They think that their habitual behavior has no influence on their future situation. Young men often live in ways that accelerate their aging, but go through their entire lives refusing to see the connection. When they are young they assume they are immortal. When they grow weak a decade later they assume they are the victims of a malevolent fate. They never think of their attributes as gracious gifts for them to preserve and use for a purpose other than gratuitous recreation.