Against Tim Allen Masculinity

See through the subversion

As Tim Allen launches his new sitcom Shifting Gears, he enters the 18th season* of television programming that has pushed the brand of masculinity he first developed as a stand-up comedian.

While only basic plot points have been revealed leading up to the new show’s debut, I think I can guess the premise:

“Man’s man learns how to accept his defeat.”

Whether Allen or his shows’ writers did it intentionally or not, his two signature characters have represented a manly bridge from the traditional values our people once held to the inverted ones pushed today.

In his hit 90s show Home Improvement, he played Tim Taylor, a tool guy who grunted like an ape and repeatedly hollered “more power” before accidentally destroying something or injuring himself. His caveman ways were tempered by his more sensible friends, including his mama’s boy co-host, Al Borland, and his bookish neighbor, Wilson.

The consistent underlying theme of the show was Tim’s tug-of-war with his wife, Jill, for the leadership of the home. Over and over he learned that his reckless male ways needed taming, and that he had a lot of apologizing to do. Fittingly, the series ended with Tim giving up his DIY show and the boys forfeiting their desires to stay in Detroit so Jill could uproot the family to Indiana to advance her career. Dad used to lead the home. Jill and Tim Taylor informed us it doesn’t work that way anymore.

In more recent years he starred in Last Man Standing, a show in which he played a man’s man with a more outdoorsy focus. In the show, he learned to come to grips with his daughters’ values even as he struggled to understand them. Despite his initial hesitancy, he came to be friends with the lesbian neighbor. He apologized to the preschool teacher for objecting to a little boy dressed as a princess. He advocated for his daughter to join the high school football team. Dad used to decide the family’s values. The Baxters informed us it doesn’t work that way anymore.

Allen and co. could have saved a lot of time if he just looked directly into the camera and told men, “Guys, you can still be men. Just take your power tools, your classic cars, your camouflage, and your football jerseys to the man cave or the workshop and get out of the way of progress. That’s what it means to be a man now.”

This is why subversives are far worse than obvious enemies: they undermine from within.

It’s not just that Allen perpetuated the TV trope of the stupid, childish dad in the manner of Archie Bunker and Homer Simpson. It’s that his characters have been a vehicle to reach the kind of men who oppose the feminized world and rewire them for compliance. Notice there aren’t any shows aimed at undermining effeminate men. Those guys already know their place.

Allen is not putting on a dress, claiming to be “gender fluid,” or scolding anyone about “toxic masculinity.” He’s one of us! He likes to get his hands dirty and hang out with the fellas! He whines about microaggressions and pronouns and all of the other insanity of the day!

But in the end, he learns to take his place. Dad doesn’t have to like it—he just has to accept it. After all, he still has his tools and his cars, and that’s what really matters to a man.

What this means for the church

Like the culture, the church hasn’t been sure what to do about masculinity, either. Because the pulpit bears a natural attraction to bookish types, masculine stereotypes already often begin on the outside. But, like a Tim Allen sitcom, these churches are not telling men they have to be women. They’re just fencing the men’s masculinity in a safe area that won’t get in the way or hurt anyone’s feelings.

Maybe we have a football, barbecue, and beards themed mens' retreat, or have a day out on the shooting range.

But when the need arises for men to take the kinds of stands God designed us to take, opposing ideas that sound good but lead to destruction (see Genesis 3), or fighting off wolves (Acts 20:28-30), manly men are shamed into sitting down and shutting up. Your manliness is for hunting deer or building a bookcase, not for defending the truth.

When a home is going astray because the husband is not leading and/or the wife is not submitting (Ephesians 5:22-33), he has little sway because all they’ve gotten on the matter at church is a steady diet of jokes about how he needs to learn words like “Yes, dear” and “I’m sorry, honey.” He’s there to complete her honey-do list, not to tell her “no.”

Conclusion

I’m sure Allen’s latest sitcom will have its share of funny lines and nuggets of truth. But we must realize, no matter how much red meat he throws to the traditional values base, he’s not on our side. Instead, he’ll continue to be a subversive influence to show men how they can feel confident in their masculinity as they stand by and let society continue to slide into darkness.

We need a true, Biblical vision of what it means to be a man. The clearer we are on that point, the easier it becomes to see how the world subverts the idea to make our homes, our churches, and the culture ripe for deception.

*To be clear, and in case you were wondering: I have not watched all or even most of these 18 seasons. I don’t have time for that, but I’ve seen enough to feel my assessment is accurate.

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Notes

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