A specter is haunting America; one with a gaping mouth and dead, vacant eyes. And no, I am not talking about Ghostface from Scream.

Rather than lurking in the shadows, this is a menace that proudly plasters itself across social media, shrieking wordlessly amid mountains of Funko Pops.

Call it Soyjak, the soy face, the cuck face, the beta face, or simply that face… if you have spent an appreciable amount of time online, you have seen it. You likely recoiled in disgust, and then you may have wondered: why do so many “men” today affect this expression?

Where did it come from?

And most importantly: what does God think of it?

Simply put, the soy face is the mark of the soy boy.

What is a soy boy? A nu-male. A bugman. The type of “man” who wants everyone to know his pronouns, who checks his privilege more often than his watch, who rails against capitalism on Twitter while gushing about his favorite Disney properties over Starbucks lattes. Say “Merry Christmas” and he’ll call you an anti-Semite, then tell you how he longs see Israel wiped off the map. And off he goes to get booster number twelve.

At almost any other point in history, these wretched specimens would be drifting skyward in the form of crematory ash, sloshing down a pig’s gullet, or decomposing at the bottom of a mass grave. Instead, society lauds them for shedding the burden of “toxic masculinity” and embracing their inner (man)child.

And the worst part is… they’re multiplying.

A GROWING THREAT

They aren’t doing so via reproduction, except with the most noxious, desperate she-cows. Nor are they exactly recruiting, like homosexuals do, through aggressive propaganda and grooming — for who could look at a greasy neckbeard and think “that’s what I want to be”? Yet somehow, year by year, their numbers increase.

How is this happening?

Language offers a clue. The epithet “soy boy” refers to soy and its feminizing properties. This subtle poison, now polluting countless foods, decreases testosterone in those who consume it. So do chemicals found in everyday objects from plastic bottles to receipts.

If testosterone levels are tanking, then the rise of feminized men is explainable. But why this particular type? Why aren’t low-T males becoming ballerinas? Then at least, like the sodomite Rudolf Nureyev, they might be capable of adding a pinch of beauty to the world (before they go to Hell). There is nothing aesthetically admirable about soy boy culture.

Without question, the soy boy phenomenon is linked to our culture’s rampant consumerism. Nu-male identity is rooted not in faith and family, but in media franchises and gadgets like the Nintendo Switch. Ask a soy boy how many children he has, and he’ll say 908 — the number of existing Pokémon.

Above all else, the defining trait of the soy boy is the staggering amount of time he spends on the Internet. Where information, and trends, travel at ever-increasing speed.

It appears that soyism is a memetic virus, transmitted unconsciously through social media and events like toy conventions, and imitated by those whose unsightly features and social ineptitude leave them vulnerable. A concept straight out of a dystopian sci-fi story, yet happening before our eyes.

And what is the signal, the symbol being sent and received?

It may well be that Godforsaken face.

They see it, they make it. The enemies of the West see it, and they laugh, knowing their job will be all too easy.

A healthy population of masculine men is money in the bank for a nation. Yet they are now in short supply, represented mainly by steroid-addled mooks who are little more than pumped-up soy boys themselves. True manhood, Biblical manhood, is dying.

That should alarm all of us.

A SORDID HISTORY

While the soy boy phenomenon is new, its face is anything but.

Eyes wild, mouth open, teeth bared: this is a primal image, a universal expression of insecurity and fear that can be observed in creatures unrelated to mankind, such as chimpanzees.

The beta face also represents depravity. Cross an alpha male, and he’ll squash you like a bug, then brush your corpse aside without ever paying you another thought. Such is the fate that befell those unfortunate enough to run up against the Biblical hero Samson — or in modern times, the political foes of Donald Trump. A moment of pain, of brief humiliation, and then you’re forgotten.

There are worse fates than being forgotten.

If you stoke the rage of a beta, you are truly rolling the dice. He might ball up his brittle fists, only to slink away muttering anime quotes as piss trickles down his leg. Or you might end up like Bianca Devins, the “e-girl” who toyed with the emotions of her orbiters until one of them, driven to a boiling point, slew her in a frenzy that left her head dangling by a ribbon of flesh, an act he shared with millions through photos and videos now etched into the annals of the internet and accessible, at a click, for all Earthly time.

Unchecked, soy culture even produces mass-murdering terrorists. Incel Elliot Rodger, who killed six people in a 2014 spree, was an avid fan of the online role-playing game World of Warcraft, to the point of quoting one of its villains in his videotaped manifesto.

Because of their capricious violence, beta males are paradoxically both pathetic and frightening. They inspire revulsion across cultures worldwide.

…Which brings us back to Scream. Is it any surprise that Wes Craven chose to mask his anonymous killers with a visage eerily like the one now leering out of countless YouTube thumbnails?

A SCRIPTURAL STANCE

We cannot crack open our Bibles and expect to see mention of betas and their soy faces, because these are modern terms birthed out of a particular cultural moment. However, it is even more foolish to think that an omniscient, benevolent God would have failed to steer us from a spiritual poison. In Prov 13:3, we find the following warning:

He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.

Now, doesn’t that sound awfully relevant?

True, the most common interpretation of this verse is as a caution against frivolous speech. But is there any difference? Although wordless, the soy face is still a potent statement: one of shrill materialism and renunciation of the stoic, masculine virtues that a man of God must cultivate.

There’s more. 1 Cor 6:9-10 shuts the book on effeminacy, stating:

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Take note that “effeminate” is NOT synonymous with homosexuals, as the very same verse lists them separately. The Apostle Paul, whom God used a vessel, was preoccupied with matters of manhood, which suggests that our current masculinity drought may have its origins in Biblical times. Later in this chapter, Paul states in no uncertain terms that men must be manly.

1 Cor 16:13
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

And of course, the Bible is chock full of warnings against materialism. Mat 6:19-21 seems particularly apt to soy boys and their hoarding of worthless pop culture trinkets.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

When faced with a difficult question, we Christians can always return to the touchstone of Jesus Christ and the example He set for us. In His time on Earth, Christ experienced an emotional gamut like no other, from the most divine joy to the depths of immeasurable despair — and back again. Yet not once in the Gospels do we read of Him screwing up His face like a cowardly ape.

Indeed, Eph 4:13 describes Christ as the apex of manliness, a gigachad who “mogs” all of mankind.

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Our lives and passions are pedestrian compared to those of the Son of Man. If He maintained a steadfast expression through it all, so can you.

While making the soy face is not explicitly a sin, it is nonetheless a sign of profound spiritual decay. Should you catch your mouth gaping and your lips curling back, it is best that you prostrate yourself in prayer and beg the Lord to take away your weakness of character.

But then, you should be doing that anyway, each and every day of your life.