What does it actually mean to be a man?
Not the manosphere version, but also not the feminized version. Something else; ferocious and gentle, strong and beautiful, capable of fighting and capable of singing.
That’s what Stuart Elliott is after with his Substack, Beautiful Masculinity, and it was a genuinely great conversation. Stuart is an educator, a father of two boys on the edge of manhood, and someone who has thought carefully about why both dominant answers to the masculinity question leave men fragmented.
A couple things that stuck with me:
Virtue is hobbitish. It doesn’t look particularly attractive. It’s the 20 miles of marching between the action scenes. Ordinary faithfulness, day after day, in the context you’ve actually been given.
Fathers are the lever. The research and the intuition both point the same direction: how the father goes, the family goes.
Stuart’s work is worth following, especially if you have boys. Go find him at Beautiful Masculinity on Substack.
(Heads up: my audio wasn’t great this episode — sorry about that. Also trying something different with the format. No closing recap and outro this time. Curious what you think.)
