Toxteth and Tate
by Sojourner:
Growing up in Toxteth was a unique experience when compared to the rest of modern Britain. It is an inner city area of rich history with heavy links to Liverpool’s maritime and industrial past alongside being a melting pot of people from various cultural backgrounds: English, African, Irish, Caribbean, South Asian and Middle Eastern to name but a few. There is a real sense of solidarity and community that is rarely encountered nowadays; the foundations for this may have been based upon how interrelated the community has been for decades or its insular nature due to perceived external oppression. Whatever the reasons, as a child we roamed the streets and freely engaged with our local community. Every street had a number of kids that you could play, laugh or fight with depending on your mood at the time. Adults and children regularly walked the streets throughout the day (not everyone had a car) so faces and characters became familiar. It allowed me to develop a sense of community identity that most native L8 (our postcode) people share. We were all a part of Toxteth and fiercely proud of it.
These were also the days before the movement of children was limited to the household. Most parents sent their kids out to play without harbouring the paralysing fear of them encountering dangerous traffic, knife crime or sexual predators. We were able to experience socially risky situations without our parents having a clue; this led to most of us developing relational survival skills that gave us a realistic view of how to act and function in the world. Poor behaviour had consequences and I can recall many an uncomfortable moment being taught a lesson by an angry neighbour, friend or passer by. All of this helped shape us before the grip of the internet took hold of society.
Nowadays, most kids are kept indoors with all their social needs provided for via their screens and a WI-FI connection. Others are sent to carefully vetted and supervised sport or musical activities with parents knowing their whereabouts at all times (even GPS phone tracking can be utilised for maximum security). This loss of physical freedom has led to many children and adolescents exploring in different ways, with many being shaped by the virtual world of social media. Much of what is offered in these online spaces is a warped version of reality, especially when it comes to what is deemed virtuous. Influencers post day and night with none having as great an impact on young boys and many men as Andrew Tate. Whilst the the question of recent times has been “What is a woman?”, the former reality tv star turned internet mogul (and alleged human trafficker) has led the virtual way in framing what it means to be a man for young people around the world. He has diagnosed some social problems accurately with his prescriptions for how to cure these ills focused upon self actualization through gaining wealth, ambition, physical fitness and dominance of others. These theories of masculinity have been embraced by many a disillusioned, screen-centred young man as the key virtues of manhood.
The influence of Tate has been decried by all corners of the political spectrum as a bad influence upon men yet many have not offered corrective masculine solutions or standards to replace his popular rhetoric. When considering modern man’s search for meaning and virtue in our current upside down world, it is good for us to look back and consider the masculine archetypes of history which have helped our ancestors frame what it means to be a man.
A reading from the Book of Genesis Chapter 25
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