Two items from the wire illustrate a wider trend, and it’s one of those trends that no one dares approach from an honest perspective.
Well, not no one.
Here’s the most recent, but if you know where to look you can find a lot more jibber-jabber about how wargaming can be used as a tool to help support men’s mental health. Before we get too deep into the analysis, let me clear that I fully support these efforts to bring regular men together into hobby spaces where they can do the work necessary to overcome the trauma that is daily life in this modern world so filled with powerful organizations that hate their very existence. (p.s. I’m not linking to the BBC.)
This may be a tactical blunder on my part. If the forces of this fallen world every catch on to the trick I’m about to expose, they’ll not rest until they’ve destroyed even these little grass-roots corners of the world in which men can find a surcease of sorrow. They’ve done it to every other hobby that lets men rest for a time, from gyms to video games and they are working on miniature wargames even as we speak. So be it. You need to understand this to combat it.
Here’s the secret: all men need to recover from this world is a few hours a week without women.
But you’re not supposed to say that. And rather than swim up the female-centric stream of our world, these men have cleverly adopted the language and tropes of female-centric spaces as camouflages for a return to the tradition of just getting away from the nagging for an evening. This isn’t a pleasant evening among friends – that would be selfish and petty and inspire the women in their lives to ask, “What’s in it for me?”
The men behind these groups head that question off at the pass by hiding behind health. This isn’t a social oasis from the pressure to act more ladylike. Oh no, this is a medically necessary treatment to encourage men to engage in self-care. This isn’t men relaxing and enjoying themselves – the horror! – this is men doing the work to “do the work”. These men aren’t laughing at each other’s antics, they are providing social support and encouragement which their friends can take back to women in their lives refreshed… and better prepared meet the needs of their women. This isn’t about what it does for men – screw those jerks – it’s about what women get out of it.
At least that’s the sales pitch, and it’s a good one.
At the end of the day, it is a very female-centered way of looking at the world and social spaces, and where men more clever than I can hide their wolfishness beneath lamb coats, I’m bound by a love of the good, the beautiful, and the true to call out the real nature of these things. It’s hard to tell which end of the chart above the men behind these initiatives fall under, and at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. They’ve found or lucked into a means of flying under the XX radar, and they have my full support.
While we’re analyzing the meta of these organizations, there are a few key differences worth pointing out. These are genuine grass-roots efforts, where female-led efforts of this kind are backed by big organizations like NGOs, corporate donors, and government agencies, all of which are funded by the same source – the hard working men who are most deserving of our support. Through taxes, higher costs for consumer goods, or the outright fraud of modern charities, it’s men who pay the price and get no support of their own. They have to make their own support, and clamber over the hurdles thrown in their way by everyone from teachers to judges to politicians.
Even with every odd stacked against them, these guys are still coming out on top. It’s damned impressive, and they have my full support.
You guys are great. Keep it up. I’m rooting for you.