The Eight Signs of Authentic Masculinity

Bullying, braggadocio, mean-spirited schadenfreude, reckless aggression, mindless greed, and silver-back posturing are clearly rooted in primitive, toxic, misguided, and emotionally-arrested definitions of masculinity.

What, then, should we trash masculinity altogether and become epicene, androgynous, feminized creatures?

That, too, strikes me as an affected, pretentious pose.

There is a real masculinity. An experience in which I couldn’t rely on the plumber but had to become self-reliant (actually did the work with the help of a friend) got me to thinking about authentic masculinity. It comprises of the following eight characteristics:

1. Possessing a type of self-reliance and having the moxie to take initiative and learn how to do things yourself, as opposed to the lazy habit of always depending on others and in the process losing control.
2. Possessing a type of humility and self-criticism that doesn’t venture into learned helplessness and self-pity but provides motivation for change.
3. Possessing the impulse to provide mentorship for the misguided and less experienced because you live connected to the world, not in an isolated state of solipsism.
4. Possessing an empathy that makes you want to help deliver people from their personal Jahiliyyah, teaching them through your actions rather than lecturing down at them.
5. Possessing a type of self-confidence that defies the dependence of others’ approval.
6. Possessing a type of courage so that you can achieve your high aspirations while ignoring the skepticism and discouragement of others so that they don’t drag you down to their level of mediocrity.
7. Possessing a vision for a better life and a higher skill level so that you’re always hungry for self-improvement. 
8. Posessing a noble life purpose achieved through blood, sweat, and tears, not platitudes. Tolstoy said that death forces us to either utterly reject life or change our lives in such a way that death cannot take away the meaning of it. We don't find our purpose, according to Viktor Frankl. We ask life what it needs from us and in the process meaning finds us.