The week before last, a review of Amazon’s series “Reacher” ran in these pages, written by Assistant Editor Caroline Kurt. I was struck, not at her enthusiasm for the show, but rather at her insistence on the way that the protagonist displays “real” masculinity.

Kurt’s consistent claim is that true masculinity lies in resolute action, up to and including maiming and killing those who oppose you. Explaining why Reacher is “as masculine as they come,” she observes that “(f)or better or for worse, Reacher spends little time examining his feelings or being ‘in touch’ with his emotions. Rather, he acts.” 

As a devotee of 80s and 90s action movies, I appreciate Kurt’s desire for fast-paced, bombastic entertainment — I share it! I do wonder, though, if we want to identify “real” masculinity with thoughtless, under-examined activity. Such a move would further belie Kurt’s comment on toxic masculinity, as she humorously implies such a thing does not exist. Surely, we would not claim that it is wholesome to maximize your physical power without regard for your mind or soul? Doesn’t the abuse of strength to prey on the weak come about precisely because the soul has not been formed to reflect on its own desires and examine what is worth loving and pursuing? 

Augustine seems to think holiness requires a significant amount of introspection. Does this make his conversion and subsequent Christian life unmanly?

None of this is to deny the usefulness of gender as a lens for engagement with the media. Consider the movie “Predator.” Given the title character’s proclivities, which amount to a relentless desire to rip apart every opponent who confronts him in an unending quest for supremacy, we would on the Reacher model consider the Predator a real man’s man. And yet to defeat this creature, Arnold Schwarzenegger does not smash his way to victory. He is compelled to use stratagem, prudence, and patience to rid the jungle of the Predator’s arguably toxic behavior.

The temptation to identify manliness with muscle and might is something the western tradition has grappled with since Homer and Plato. In general, though, I think we want to avoid ceding the point to Thrasymachus.