Mainstream evangelical parenting advice framed masculine aggression as divinely designed

Evidence

The key to understanding boys, according to Dobson, was testosterone. The hormone made boys “competitive, aggressive, assertive, and lovers of cars, trucks, guns, and balls.” A “masculine will to power” was evident in little boys who dressed up as superheroes, cowboys, and Tarzan. It was why boys fought, climbed, wrestled, and strutted around. Feminists and liberals seemed to think that testosterone was “one of God’s great mistakes.” They preferred to make boys more like girls, and men more like women—“feminized, emasculated, and wimpified.” But “reprogramming” men and boys interfered with God’s careful design. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 402

Categorization

• XREF: Ties directly to the chapter’s core argument in the book: militant masculinity transmitted through commercial culture (Dobson’s books, radio) rather than pulpit theology. Useful contrast point for the reader’s contestation of method.