Legend has it that radical feminists once proclaimed, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle!" This could be a stand-up comedienne's punch line in a joke about a blind date with a jerk, but as a statement of human needs, it is laughable. Granted, it reflects the attitude of some women, including some who have had very bad experiences with men, but is it true for all women, for many happily married wives and mothers?
Since many women still need men, the new target for rejection by feminists has shifted to manhood or masculinity. A 2015 documentary, The Mask You Live In, claims that "Be a man!" are the three most destructive words you can say to a boy because they promote "toxic masculinity." So is the new slogan: "A man needs masculinity like a fish needs a bicycle"?
Tony Esolen ended his Touchstone conference talk with a call for "patriarchal groups," groups of men mentoring younger men. This could include "fraternal groups"–Boys Scouts of yesteryear. Other forms are all-male schools and colleges. But some all-male high schools today are problematic, including those that are supposed to be Christian but are liberal rather than bracingly orthodox.
What about other "patriarchal groups"? And how might they fit into the development of various expressions of the much-discussed "Benedict Option"? Is there a place for patriarchal groups within it? Monasticism, including St. Benedict's, of course, is both fraternal and patriarchal, with brothers and abbots. The idea of a robust Christian community, whether in a parish or monastery, should include men's groups if it is to have a future.
In response to pressure from clients who were demanding a CoC [Code of Conduct] before they would do business with him, Richard Hipp, the founder of the widely used SQLite database engine, adopted the Rule of St. Benedict as the guiding principles for his community. The move angered many in the tech community…
After looking around at contemporary CoCs, Hipp found them to be "vapid.""I felt like they were trendy feel-good words that had no depth," he said. "I could compare them to pop music, which sells millions of copies this week, but next year is forgotten." He was looking for something more enduring, like Mozart. "What is the Mozart equivalent of a CoC?" he asked. He considered, among other things, Ben Franklin's 13 virtues, the Ten Commandments, the Noahide Laws, Micah 6:8 from the Old Testament, and Mother Teresa's prayer from her 1985 speech to the UN GeneralAssembly. "None of these provided a framework for governing the interaction of a community," he explained. "But the 'Instruments of Good Works'from the Rule of St. Benedict seemed to fit the bill."
