Father

Arnold Schwarzenegger recently gave an interesting interview to the Times of London. It was less about promoting his Netflix show and more about promoting his environmental work, but he spoke about a variety of topics, including his pride in his son Patrick, the collapse of his marriage to Maria Shriver, how he’s living his American dream, and the so-called “crisis in masculinity.” I found his comments about masculinity the most notable – Arnold has always been pure machismo, profiting from the performance of his masculinity for decades. In his view, the crisis in masculinity is simple: every kid needs a father or father figure. Some highlights from the Times:

He’s totally fine when people interrupt his day to talk to him: “What people miss the most is to get attention. That someone knows them, is aware of them, that they’re somebody. And so they go to a shrink. They lie on the couch and someone is listening to them. But I go out anywhere to a crowd and they all listen. And they love to listen to my sh-t, right? I’m having fifty thousand shrinks sitting out there, and I don’t pay a f***ing penny. I get paid! So how can I complain about that?… OK, yes, there are times when you go to a restaurant and someone comes up and says, can I take a picture of you? But I can walk into this restaurant at any time, I can sit at any table I want, I make no reservation. For that I take a picture with someone. It takes three minutes. So why would I complain?”

On the second Trump era: “This country’s going through a difficult moment but it’s not the end of the world.”

Whether he thinks masculinity is in crisis: He claims to have never even heard of Andrew Tate, but reflects, “The majority of people have a problem. They feel down, depressed, not in a good mood. People come up to me in the gym and ask, ‘How can I get up in the morning and feel good?’ Well, I’m not an expert in psychology and all this stuff. But I tell them, what works for me is not to think. So therefore, don’t think. Just work out and struggle and fight. This will make you feel good mentally.”

What do young men need? “I don’t know if I have the solution or not. But when I think about my kids, none of them have that problem. And the reason is because there was a strong father there. I gave them discipline and didn’t let them get away with anything. And they were taught how to make their beds, they were taught how to wash their clothes. Because it’s like the way I grew up.” Then he gets out his iPad to show me videos of him painting Mother’s Day cards with his two young granddaughters and his expression melts as he points out their rapt gaze. “So I think that kids need a father and a mother. It’s always the key. And if they don’t have a father, some other male has to come in.”

He believes most young men lack father figures: Arnold’s only brother died in a car crash in Austria at the age of 24, leaving a three-year-old son, Patrick. Schwarzenegger brought his nephew to the US at 19, put him through college, got him a job at Gold’s Gym and he is now a successful entertainment lawyer in LA. “Of course he missed his father but that we couldn’t do anything about. He was dead. So now it was just surrounding him with the support and with male reinforcement, to say this is what you should do. The male dominance, that’s what they idolise.”

His son Patrick, who was just on The White Lotus: “Patrick never asked me a question about acting. But he came many times to me and said, ‘I just did an interview with this magazine and two thirds of the questions were about you.’ But I was just in New York and a journalist comes up and says, ‘What’s it like being the father of Patrick Schwarzenegger?’ All of a sudden, everything has changed around. I walk into the gym now and it used to be the girls would come up and give me their contact. And then after White Lotus comes out, the girl comes up and says, ‘Here’s my contact, give it to Patrick.’ So it’s wonderful. If I go to my grave and know that my son has outdone me, I’m in heaven.”

[From The Times]

Yeah, he’s speaking from his own experience, it’s not like he’s claiming to be an expert on families. I’m not surprised that Arnold has retro, if not completely regressive, views on parenting, families and father figures. It is strange though, because… Arnold had a sh-tty father who was an abusive alcoholic Nazi, and Arnold turned into a much better man IN SPITE of his father. Arnold also denied fathering his son Joseph for years, although Arnold is a father to Joseph now and they’re in each other’s lives. There are plenty of toxic jackholes who had great fathers, and there are plenty of amazing people who grew up without strong, loving fathers or father figures. Arnold does edge up on one of my theories about the alleged “crisis of masculinity” though – the lack of quality role models for boys and young men, and in that vacuum, pieces of sh-t like Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan are celebrated.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.