What is Masculinity?

This is a GREAT question!

As an insider, I can speak to this. Of course what follows is entirely autobiographical and confessional! Like femininity, virility is a Mystery that cannot be adequately described or defined; so I offer glimpses in the way of epigrams.

Masculinity is:

-  One mode of the bi-polar conjugal Mystery imagined from all time as the sublime created image of the inner Trinitarian Event of Love.

- Gentle strength; as femininity is strong gentleness.

-  Deeply and tragically in crisis in the wake of the Cultural Revolution whose diabolical ambition was to devastate the Conjugal Mystery...femininity, masculinity, intimacy, fidelity and fecundity.

-  A facing, an attraction, a movement towards the Feminine...in a desire that is desperate, excruciating, maddening; in awe and fascination; in befuddlement; in tenderness; in reverence; in fortitude and heroism; in humility; in extravagant Joy and gratitude.

-  A journey from maternal enclosure, safety and comfort; through the painful oedipal passage; into identification with Father;  and fraternal camaraderie; through bloody combat and competition; in the achievement of identity; and the intimacy of romantic agony and spousal ecstasy; to be possessed by a mission and adventure; in conjugal partnership; and paternity; and ordination as a patriarch; into wisdom, serenity and gratitude.

-  Loneliness. The male is lonely, in contrast to the female who remains bonded and intimate with mother, sisters, friends, daughters, the elderly and sick. Adam, lonely and without a companion, received Eve as "bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh;" but that ecstatic intimacy was destroyed by the Fall; and he returned to isolation. This autonomy is his destiny as founder of a family, as image of the Father: his relatedness is always within a prior isolation; as woman's isolation is always within a prior relatedness.

-  A task, a mission, an achievement and finally a coronation. This contrasts with femininity which is an endowment: received, serene, effortless, abundant, diffusive, gracious, perfect, overflowing. The male must struggle, suffer, bleed, fight, fail, convert, surrender...all as initiation in to his Role as Representative of a Higher Power ( primarily God, but also justice, authority, tradition, truth.)
(Anecdote: my son who serves in the military told me he always loved to wear a uniform. Instinctively he understood his call to represent something so much greater than himself. And so, little boys never tire of dressing as knights, police, superheroes, etc.) By sharpest contrast, woman does not represent anything and has no role to play...it is for her to be her splendid self.  She is her own value: integral, harmonious, radiant, abundant and perfect.

-  Fragmented, dissonant, erratic, cowardly and violent...virility, destined to represent that which is Holy and Good and True, needs first and foremost and absolutely to be vested in humility, consciousness of its own misery and unworthiness in face of the sacred task it is given.

- Proud, it must become humble; lustful, it must become chaste; timid, insecure and cowardly, it must become courageous; harsh, it must become gentle and tender. It is in need of supernatural help!

-  Protection and provision for mother-with-child, the poor and the weak, good order and the Common Good, Tradition and Truth.

- Reverent before the Holy, especially as presented in women; tender before the fragile, precious, vulnerable and suffering; passionate in mission, challenge, adventure; serene and confident in the face of danger and turmoil.

- Vastly inferior to the feminine in inherent dignity, graciousness, integrity, generosity, resiliency...the masculine urgently needs the support of fatherly mentoring, fraternal camaraderie, and above all heavenly graces.  With femininity surpassing so in affectivity, resiliency, spirituality, integrity, dignity,  loveliness-lovableness-loving-ness, any wholesome society must be patriarchical, properly understood, as cultural environment that encourages and honors men in their representational mission.

-  At its ontological and spiritual depth, virility is itself created, and therefore receptive, and therefore feminine. As the Son, within the Trinity, is Reception...complete, absolute, infinite...of the Father...and then response. And so, virility to become true and strong, must first be receptive...of life, love, grace, and all the gifts flowing from our Creator. Out of this filial trust and reception, masculinity becomes paternal, courageous, humble, pure, and generous.