GLENN: The counseling and mental health center at the University of Texas, has now launched a new program to help male students take control over their gender identity, and develop a healthy sense of masculinity.
The university of Texas is now going to treat masculinity as a mental health issue.
Treating masculinity as if it were a mental health crisis, masculine UT, is organized by the school's counseling staff. And most recently organized a poster series encouraging students to develop a healthy model of masculinity.
The program is predicated on a critique of so-called restrictive masculinity. Men, the program argues, suffer when they are told to act like a man.
You might enjoy taking care of people or being active, but the university of Texas now warns that many of these attributes are actually dangerous.
Being active.
STU: I agree with that one actually.
GLENN: Okay. I'm willing to sit on the couch.
STU: If it gets me out of the gym, I agree.
GLENN: Taking care of people. They say, the traditional ideas of masculinity place men into rigid and restrictive boxes, which prevent them from developing their emotional maturity.
If you're a male student at UT reading this now, we hope that learning about this helps you feel not guilty about having participated in these definitions of masculinity. And instead, feel empowered to break the cycle. Yes.
You can be unsuccessful. Yes. You can not help people.
Program is currently without leadership. But I have what it takes to -- what they're looking for. They're paying $4,000 a month for somebody to run the program. Here is -- here is one of the posters that they have included. And it's a picture of a -- of a boy standing. A man standing. And he's -- they've drawn a cartoon dress on him.
And the other one shows him daydreaming about lipstick and nail polish. Some examples of the captions on the posters: I don't identify as masculine, it's imposed on my body. One way I embrace my femininity is by doing my makeup and doing my nails. Even though I'm masculine, I can wear makeup. And if I feel like wearing a dress, I can do that too. It's totally fine.
Something I've fallen in love with, about being queer, is that you can be vulnerable. You don't have to feel invalid in feeling strong or confident or feminine.
STU: Good for you, Glenn.
GLENN: No, this is the --
STU: Oh, that was you reading something. I'm sorry. I thought you just submitted something.
GLENN: There's a recent trend going on, on Twitter, called care-free black boy aesthetic. Where men who are traditionally masculine have flowers in their beard or something. I'm glad they're trying to expand what masculinity looks like. But I wish it went further than that.
STU: Further than the flowers in the beard? I thought that would solve all the problems. It certainly did with war. You put the flower in the gun, and that just solved all the war problems.
GLENN: Apparently.
So the website states its goals are to promote healthy models of masculinity, to prevent interpersonal (?) and sexual violence at campus. At the same time, this program was created as a resource and support for students who want to learn about (?) including students traditionally understood as male, as well as female.
Wait. What? Transgendered. Gender queer. And nonbinary students, who embody (?) according to the program, men suffer when they're told to act like a man, or be successful, or be a breadwinner.
STU: It's amazing because this movement, theoretically seemed to start with the idea that, you know, we reject your -- (?) man, woman. You know, straight. All these things. We reject those. We reject your labels.
And now, like, it seems as if instead of making labels less important, they're completely owned by them.
GLENN: Uh-huh.
STU: All they talk about, all the time is labels. Here, you've got 25 different new labels that you can call each other. And we have to specifically break ourselves down in these tiny, tiny labels. They talk about uniting.
They talk about all of these grand concepts, that their actions completely fight against.
GLENN: Uh-huh.
STU: It's just -- the idea that you would focus so much of your energy to try to break down whether you're nonbinary or gender queer, whatever the space is between those things, isn't it a complete waste of time?
GLENN: Yes. Yes.
STU: At the end of the day, if you figure out, okay. I'm gender queer, and I'm not nonbinary, what does that do for you? Where does that bring you in your life?
GLENN: You know, I have to tell you, anybody -- any man who is listening to this right now, reject everything you just heard from the University of Texas. Reject it.
There is something empowering about being successful. Striving for a higher level. Taking care of others. Being the person who is the breadwinner, who makes things possible, because your your spouse makes things possible with the family. Now, maybe in the family, it's reversed. Maybe (?) it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter. But there's nothing wrong with feeling that way. Nothing.
And if you're a woman and you want to be the bread Wehner, there's nothing wrong with that either. But stop tearing down men.
Let me tell you something -- this is supposedly going to stop violence. Uh-huh.
Is it? It's going to stop abuse. Is it?
In my family, I come from a family of abuse. And what the abuse required in my family was a man. Was a man stepping to the plate and say, no more!
Because the men traditionally in my family, were the enablers. Or the abusers.
What is the problem? What is the problem with a man standing up and saying, this is going to end?
What is the problem with a man standing up and saying, women are not to be treated that way?
So if a man treats a woman horribly, they're a horrible human being. And if a man mans up and knows what it means to be a man and stands up and says, not on my watch, they're also a horrible human being?
I don't understand that. Do not -- you know what, teach your boys to stand when a woman comes to the table. We were doing that for about -- about a year in my house. And we just got lazy and we stopped.
I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have stopped. Teach your boys to stand when a woman comes into the room or a woman comes to the table. I know it goes against everything, but it sends a signal of respect.
Now, I know -- I know women can open their own door. My wife -- let me tell you something, you come to our house, if I'm the closest one to the gun, you're dead. If you're the closest one to the children, let me tell you something, I'm the least of your worries. Gun or no gun. My wife is a very strong, powerful woman.
And there's no problem in that. But I open the car door for my wife. I open the door for my wife.
That's the way -- that's the way you show respect. Now, I don't know why -- why we have to treat women any differently than we treat our fellow boys.
Boys will be boys. Yes, they will. But men are different. You want to be treated like one of the boys? Fine.
Sit and listen to the farts that go around, when boys are hanging out. Listen to the language and get ready to be called whatever they want to call you. Because boys will be boys.
Raise men. And I'm sorry, but you can't be both a male and a female. It's not fluid. You can be a man and like Broadway.
That has nothing to do with being a man. Perhaps -- perhaps the feminist movement needs to take a minute and learn what a real man is.
