GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn Urges Moms to Raise Their Son “To Be a Monster”

If you’ve ever seen an evangelical megachurch event geared toward men, you know they promote a version of masculinity that’s entirely stereotypical, full of guns, cars, wrestling, etc., all in the name of Jesus. (Sometimes, they don’t even hide the misogyny.) The takeaway is straight-forward: There’s one way to be a man and if you’re gay, emotional, egalitarian, or just not leaning in to your gender role, you’re the problem.

Republican congressman Madison Cawthorn, an alleged sexual predator who’s spent his time in office trolling people online while promoting Christian Nationalism, wants you to know he’s very worried that our culture is trying to “demasculate” young men. (The word is “emasculate,” but whatever.)

But don’t worry: He has a solution. Parents should just raise their sons to be “monsters.”

Our culture today is trying to completely demasculate all of the young men in our culture. I mean, you can look at the testosterone levels in young men today and they are lower than throughout all of history, and there’s a lot of reason for this that we can get into later.

But, my friends, they’re trying to demasculate the young men in this country because they don’t want people who are gonna stand up. And so I’m telling you, all of you moms here, the people who I said were the most vicious in our movement, if you are raising a young man, please raise them to be a monster.

You can raise them to be Christians in the mold of Cawthorn and it’d be the same thing. As one of his victims said years ago, “I do not know who Madison Cawthorn is today… But I do know how threatened and belittled he made me feel six years ago.” There’s your monster right there.

And while testosterone levels have declined in recent years, it’s irrelevant when it comes to the toxic version of manhood that Cawthorn is promoting here. Being a man is about much more than a hormone in your body.

I’ll gladly surround myself with men who aren’t afraid of expressing emotions, who respect other people, and who don’t automatically treat those who disagree with them as their enemies. In other words, men who don’t fit into Cawthorn’s narrow definition. If he was more comfortable in his own skin, maybe he’d realize there’s more to masculinity than constant aggression. His remarks say far more about him than the “culture.”