The primal masculine is being called back into society.

I definitely didn’t have a Menopause conference on my 2025 Bingo Card, but lo and behold, last weekend in Chicago, I got to speak on a panel with brilliant doctors, a dermatologist, and an HR director at Menopalooza.

And nope, they didn’t care about my background in Traditional Chinese Medicine; they wanted me there to talk about men. What I want to share with you today is the sum of the side conversations I had after my 20 minutes on stage, because it’s something I’ve felt since I came out of my dark retreat this summer.

If you’re a man, this pertains to you directly. If you’re a woman, perhaps you’ve felt this too.

 

The primal masculine
is being called
back into society.

Picture me trying to bob and weave my way to a bottle of water and a few bags of popcorn on a break during the conference and repeatedly running into a conference attendee who would stop me, look me directly in the eye, and say in no uncertain terms:

“Thank you for your work, we need men back.”

Or something like this. I heard it from mothers, from single women, and even from a few of the high-powered female MDs themselves—we need men back.

Now, as the youngest in my family, I have a pension for smartassery, so I did bite my tongue a few times so as not to say—WE DIDN’T GO ANYWHERE.

But that’s not entirely true, is it? And that’s not really what they were getting at.

There aren’t less
physical men,
there are less men
who embody and
express the
primal masculine.

That’s what they were saying.

There are less men who are connected to their integrated power. Less men who move through the world like they have a rightful place in it. Less men who can hold tension, create safety, and take up their actual size without shrinking, apologizing—or dominating.

And here’s what hit me standing there with popcorn in hand: they’re right. Not because men disappeared, but because we got the message loud and clear over the past decade that our masculine nature—the primal, instinctive, testosterone-driven parts—were the problem. Even, how does one say…“toxic.”

So instead of evolving them into something holistic and balanced, something UNcivilized, we filed them down. Softened our edges. Learned to defer, accommodate, and above all, not make anyone uncomfortable with our presence. Or even worse—a lot of guys just simply collapsed.

My 49-day dark retreat earlier this year made me feel this in my body...

I was walking the room on Day 23 asking for a new tagline for UNcivilized. One that wasn’t an entire sentence. These words landed square on me.

BE
MORE
MAN.

More grounded. More powerful. More relational.

Seems like the darkness was giving me exactly what the world would quickly ask for—more men. And men who could walk into any situation, stay calm, stay grounded, and be of service.

Men who knew and lived, understanding that the foundation of everything is primal. It’s natural. It’s powerful.

This isn’t about going backwards. It’s not about dominance, aggression, or some cartoonish version of masculinity where you grunt and beat your chest. That’s not primal—that’s performing.

The primal masculine I’m talking about—the one these women were asking for, the one that landed on me in the dark—is something else entirely. It’s a man who knows his strength and doesn’t need to prove it. Who can be in his body without apology. Who leads not because he demands it, but because he’s grounded enough that others naturally orient around him. Who can hold space for emotion without collapsing into it or running from it.

“Be More Man”
isn’t a call to
be less evolved.
It’s a call to stop
apologizing for
being male.

To integrate your primal nature with your intelligence, your tenderness, your consciousness. To stop performing sensitivity and start embodying strength that’s actually safe.

I’ve watched this shift happening all year. Men are tired of filtering themselves into something palatable. Women are tired of men who need permission to lead. And the world? The world is desperate for men who can hold the center when everything’s falling apart.

Because the call is out. The primal masculine isn’t just back—it’s being actively summoned. Even at Menopause conferences.

The question is: are you answering?

Be More Man.

Yours, UNcivilized,
Traver

P.S. - If this landed, send me an email, and tell me what you’re noticing in yourself or the men around you. I read every response.