Our sons are born into a world of moral and aesthetic chaos. There are no rules, no expectations, no limits.

The barriers that frame our traditionally fixed forms are broken down in front of our very eyes. Any sense of hierarchy is eviscerated. The definitions of man and woman are mutilated. Sacred and profane are turned in a blender together. Culture is flattened, and American aesthetics are forgotten.

Your grandfather learned how to dress from his father, and your father from his father. What are you teaching your son?

And in this perilous state, there are men who claim that clothes do not matter.

Cultural slop

These men do not understand the harsh reality that if they do not teach their sons how to dress, their sons will be swallowed up by the cultural slop of our era. They claim that clothes aren’t important and that men don’t need to care about how they dress. They couldn’t be more wrong.

It’s not only that this idea is wrong. It’s dangerous. It’s giving up and surrendering your son to the tides of mass-culture 2024. It’s this attitude that allows the creeping hands of culture-less androgyny to grasp the throat and squeeze.

This androgyny is a primary thrust of our time. A confusing of man and woman. Telling children that boys can be girls and girls can be boys. It’s in the language; it’s in the messaging; it’s in the clothes. If you do not resist aesthetically, you will be eaten alive. If you do not swim, you will float down the river like a dead log. To oppose the culture of 2024, it’s not enough to talk about it. You must embody it aesthetically. If you do, the impact is powerful.

Man or beast?

Why do we wear clothes? Because we are not beasts. We were exiled from the Garden many years ago, and since then, we have covered ourselves. Today, we have civilization. Since we do not walk around nude, our clothes reflect the divine and eternal forms of man and woman.

Deuteronomy 22:5 should come to mind. There is a reason why God tells us that men should not wear women’s clothes and women should not wear men’s clothes. Concerns about men and women wearing appropriate clothing are as deep in our civilizational psyche as practically any other concept.

Of course, clothes are not only about making a distinction between man and woman. Clothes are also about culture and values. When we look at someone, we see his clothes immediately. You cannot meet people and ignore their clothes. They scream out at you. You will always remember something about what someone wears. It’s not only the colors or the fabric. You communicate with your clothing. Clothes tell the world who you are, where you are from, and even what you believe — whether you like it or not. Clothes are an acute aesthetic manifestation and representation of both culture and sex.

How much “gender confusion” was there when women wore dresses and skirts regularly and men wore ties and jackets every week? Very little. It’s not that those things were the only things preventing the tragic chaos and confusion we see today, but those things were part of the broader aesthetic structure that kept order. We live in the world, not only in our minds. When men dressed like men, it kept them strong men. When women dressed like women, it kept them beautiful women.

Derelict

We read endlessly about the dire state of young men these days. After reading, do you think there is no connection between the nihilistic misery of young men and the fact that a great majority of them look like street urchins?

Do you think there is no connection between the depression and social isolation of the boys who wear foolish clothes and those clothes that only remind themselves of how foolish they are? Of course there is a connection. It is clear as day. Young men are being beaten down by their clothes, and no one will help.

Claiming that clothes don’t matter and thoughtlessly turning your son over to the mode du jour is surrendering to madness, giving up the fight, abdicating responsibility. It’s a sign of ignorance and unawareness.

A traditional value

It’s our job as fathers to teach our sons how to dress like men and with a sense of dignity. No one else is going to do it for us. It’s our responsibility. Our boys look up to us. We are their first teachers. This is not a new value. This is a traditional value. Your grandfather learned how to dress from his father and your father from his father. What are you teaching your son? That you don’t care? Or how to dress like a man of the West?

If you do not teach your son how to dress, the culture will do it for you. And this culture will not teach him to dress like a man. It will teach him to dress like a slob. It will teach him to dress in a way that depresses him. Our current culture will not try to elevate him. It does not want him to be strong and confident. Counting on the current culture to teach our sons how to dress is equivalent to turning your son loose on the internet all day, every day. You would never do that, would you?

Teaching our sons aesthetic values in personal dress is an important part of teaching them how to be men. This value has been terribly neglected in recent decades, and we are tragically living with the consequences. It is chaos, confusion, misery, and an ugly world. Our sons deserve better. Our sons deserve to dress like men.