Yesterday I was asked to write a piece in response to the University of Texas class on gender studies that is positioning masculinity as a disease. I declined but will comment here.

“Have a great class, kids.”

That’s my response. When I first opened my gym in Santa Barbara, I did so without knowing my direct competition was literally 90 feet away. Slightly less than brilliant business move.

People would ask everyday, “Did you hear the ‘other gym’ has done XYZ? Did you hear?”

My response was always this, “I didn’t and I’m truly unconcerned with what they’re doing. Every ounce of energy I spend thinking about them and worrying about what they’re doing is one ounce less that I can be putting towards you current clients, making sure the experience here is like nothing you’ll experience anywhere else.”
What do you know, within two years we had reached our membership capacity and were forced to expand our facility twice over. The other gym had not grown at all.

There is a large social movement, based on an ideology, a set of beliefs around an outdated paradigm of masculinity.

This paradigm is
predicated on the false
belief that all
strong men are
dangerous men —
thus the only way to
change society
is to weaken men.

My goal is not to change that paradigm. That’s wasted energy. My goal is to bring forward the new paradigm.

Yesterday, 50 men started the Uncivilized Men’s Challenge. 50 men who are looking deep within themselves, celebrating their strength, and cultivating the responsibility that comes with it. They’re being asked to examine their shadows, their integrity, and to feel cultivate a relationship with their inner beings. That and knock out 100 squats.

50 men today. 1000 men tomorrow.

The new paradigm
is here and it’s
an Uncivilized one.

It’s going to terrify the shit out of the establishment but free us all. No more screaming that square pegs need to fit in round holes, and if they don’t, they’re diseased.

Yours Uncivilized,
Traver