Seeing Tonic Masculinity everywhere right now because Tim Walz joined the winning presidential ticket is a lot like getting a new car and then seeing the same car everywhere on the road and in parking lots. Positive and supportive men who show kindness and care for others have been here the whole time, but we are only now starting to call it out as a movement rather than the exception to the rule. Together, we can see one another and sustain our continued growth as men.
I’d been trying to think of a better descriptor than Midwestern Dad to get at the aura Walz projects. After all, not all good men are Midwestern or dads. Soon I realized the perfect term had already been coined. “Tim Walz has tonic masculinity,” I saw several fans write online.
How the internet cast Tim Walz as America’s Midwestern dad – The Washington Post
What these men have in common is that they aren’t scared of strong or successful females, and they don’t shy away from their vulnerabilities. A staple of positive masculinity is being able to share power, which is for the best.
Tim Walz, the Kelce Brothers and a New Era of ‘Positive Masculinity’ – Newsweek
Tonic Masculinity on Social Media
- Tonic Masculinity Search • Threads
- TonicMasculinity • Threads
- Tonic Masculinity Search — Bluesky
- TonicMasculinity Hashtag — Bluesky
Mr. Rogers, The Tonic
From the very beginning, Rogers knew that love meant talking about the hard stuff.
“Love is generally confused with dependence. Those of us who have grown in true love know that we can love only in proportion to our capacity for independence.”
Fred Rogers, The Radical Theology of Mr. Rogers
“The roots of a child’s ability to cope and thrive, regardless of circumstance, lie in that child’s having had at least a small, safe place (an apartment? a room? a lap?) in which, in the companionship of a loving person, that child could discover that [they were] lovable and capable of loving in return. If a child finds this during the first years of life,[they] can grow up to be a competent, healthy person.”
