This is such an insightful way to articulate the issue. The conversation mostly revolves around individuals ("men are bad"). This is one of the few times that men are talked about in a way that acknowledges the system at play, that they are a product of an environment and society that has shaped them a certain way.
I've lost the podcast source that talked about "there is no good way to be a man currently". Even for someone who wants to be a better man, there aren't role models or celebrations of " good manliness". There's no positive road map, only a list of "don'ts" and stereotypes to avoid.
The best example of good manliness in media I can think of is Bandit from Bluey.
The options are pretty slim if a cartoon dog from a children’s show is humanity’s best example of being a good man.
Idk, I think Aragorn is a great example. As is Samwise.
Tim Walz seems to do it right.
Uncle Iroh is another one
We, as a society, are still trapped within the "feminist revolution", there's fighting going on and no new normal emerged.
Both sides are ripped apart by two often contradicting sets of expectations, the traditional role and the progressive role.
What makes it so hard for a lot of men is, that it's a willful surrender of privileges. Men lost a ton of privileges over the last decades and it takes a bit of reflection to understand that these privileges were never legitimate in the first place. Instead, they frame women's rights as weakness, because it directly contradicts their narrative of a strong man.
And that also reflects on women, to put it extremely bluntly, he's expected to pay for dinner, but she still wants equal pay. It will take decades to sort all of that out.
At least that means the routes men take will be more unique
Or they'll all fall down the Andrew "Sex Trafficker" Tate pipeline instead.
As a woman, this seems universal to me. Not a gendered issue. More a social issue.
As a bisexual guy, this is exactly why I mostly dated women.
For several years I hated women because subconsciously I was angry that they are allowed to express their femininity and I'm not. Now that I've matured I hate the system that keeps me oppressed. I think if "alpha males" stopped taking out their anger on women and instead on the capitalist class we would start seeing some true progress.
same but then I realized I am a woman
Congratulations on your transition 🙏
For several years I hated women because subconsciously I was angry that they are allowed to express their femininity and I'm not.
Wouldn't the equivalent rather be women being allowed to express masculine traits? Which to be fair is well-accepted nowadays.
However, I don't give a shit if people see some of my traits as feminine. I was born male and 100% identify as male. If others see my traits as feminine, it doesn't change my identity because I define it. Think I shouldn't wear long hair? Who asked for your opinion? And why should be awesome traits like empathy or openness be strictly female and not human?
Some masculine traits in women are accepted to some extent. But, look at the backlash against that Algerian boxer.
For someone who really cares about fitting in with society, the pressure to conform can be pretty brutal. There's probably more freedom to be who you want to be now than ever before. In the past not only gender roles, but every role in society was extremely rigid. People didn't even have the freedom to decide whether or not to wear a hat outside. The expectation was that everyone wore a hat, and if you didn't you were a real oddball.
I strongly suspect that some of the people who think they're trans are just people who have interests/passions/attitudes/personalities that don't conform to their stereotypical gender roles.
they are allowed to express their femininity and I'm not.
A man expressing masculinity? “That’s violently toxic!”
A man expressing femininity? “That’s disgustingly pathetic!”
Now that I've matured I hate the system that keeps me oppressed
Except… who reinforces those oppressive rules?
It ain’t men, that’s for sure. We just passively submit and nod our heads yes to whatever women say, least we are painted with the same brush by association, and be labelled misogynistic or “not a man” for disagreeing.
I'm not gonna be the "not all men" guy because this person does have a point,
But I will say, if all you look for is negatives, that's all you're gonna find.
Not being desirable can also solely be a lack of positives.
Ah yes, you look at the entirety of the male population, say "there's no positives", and still think you have a point 😂😂😂.
It's like you can't even wrap your own head around the sheer amount of misandry oozing from your mouth.
This is why I prefer queer people, they generally know how to be themselves and have emotions.
Accepting that one is queer often includes a significant deal of shedding at least some of the internalized constraining expectations of society in order to accept yourself, so queer folk have a 'cleaner' slate to resocialize themselves on, if you will.
As a general rule, obviously none of this is universal, and there are plenty of poorly socialized toxic queer folk out there. But I'm inclined to agree that they're less likely to be toxic, in my experience as well.
This is such an insightful way to articulate the issue. The conversation mostly revolves around individuals ("men are bad"). This is one of the few times that men are talked about in a way that acknowledges the system at play, that they are a product of an environment and society that has shaped them a certain way.
I've lost the podcast source that talked about "there is no good way to be a man currently". Even for someone who wants to be a better man, there aren't role models or celebrations of " good manliness". There's no positive road map, only a list of "don'ts" and stereotypes to avoid.
The best example of good manliness in media I can think of is Bandit from Bluey.
The options are pretty slim if a cartoon dog from a children’s show is humanity’s best example of being a good man.
Idk, I think Aragorn is a great example. As is Samwise.
Tim Walz seems to do it right.
Uncle Iroh is another one
We, as a society, are still trapped within the "feminist revolution", there's fighting going on and no new normal emerged.
Both sides are ripped apart by two often contradicting sets of expectations, the traditional role and the progressive role.
What makes it so hard for a lot of men is, that it's a willful surrender of privileges. Men lost a ton of privileges over the last decades and it takes a bit of reflection to understand that these privileges were never legitimate in the first place. Instead, they frame women's rights as weakness, because it directly contradicts their narrative of a strong man.
And that also reflects on women, to put it extremely bluntly, he's expected to pay for dinner, but she still wants equal pay. It will take decades to sort all of that out.
At least that means the routes men take will be more unique
Or they'll all fall down the Andrew "Sex Trafficker" Tate pipeline instead.
As a woman, this seems universal to me. Not a gendered issue. More a social issue.
As a bisexual guy, this is exactly why I mostly dated women.
For several years I hated women because subconsciously I was angry that they are allowed to express their femininity and I'm not. Now that I've matured I hate the system that keeps me oppressed. I think if "alpha males" stopped taking out their anger on women and instead on the capitalist class we would start seeing some true progress.
same but then I realized I am a woman
Congratulations on your transition 🙏
Wouldn't the equivalent rather be women being allowed to express masculine traits? Which to be fair is well-accepted nowadays.
However, I don't give a shit if people see some of my traits as feminine. I was born male and 100% identify as male. If others see my traits as feminine, it doesn't change my identity because I define it. Think I shouldn't wear long hair? Who asked for your opinion? And why should be awesome traits like empathy or openness be strictly female and not human?
Some masculine traits in women are accepted to some extent. But, look at the backlash against that Algerian boxer.
For someone who really cares about fitting in with society, the pressure to conform can be pretty brutal. There's probably more freedom to be who you want to be now than ever before. In the past not only gender roles, but every role in society was extremely rigid. People didn't even have the freedom to decide whether or not to wear a hat outside. The expectation was that everyone wore a hat, and if you didn't you were a real oddball.
I strongly suspect that some of the people who think they're trans are just people who have interests/passions/attitudes/personalities that don't conform to their stereotypical gender roles.
A man expressing masculinity? “That’s violently toxic!”
A man expressing femininity? “That’s disgustingly pathetic!”
Except… who reinforces those oppressive rules?
It ain’t men, that’s for sure. We just passively submit and nod our heads yes to whatever women say, least we are painted with the same brush by association, and be labelled misogynistic or “not a man” for disagreeing.
I'm not gonna be the "not all men" guy because this person does have a point,
But I will say, if all you look for is negatives, that's all you're gonna find.
Not being desirable can also solely be a lack of positives.
Ah yes, you look at the entirety of the male population, say "there's no positives", and still think you have a point 😂😂😂.
It's like you can't even wrap your own head around the sheer amount of misandry oozing from your mouth.
This is why I prefer queer people, they generally know how to be themselves and have emotions.
Accepting that one is queer often includes a significant deal of shedding at least some of the internalized constraining expectations of society in order to accept yourself, so queer folk have a 'cleaner' slate to resocialize themselves on, if you will.
As a general rule, obviously none of this is universal, and there are plenty of poorly socialized toxic queer folk out there. But I'm inclined to agree that they're less likely to be toxic, in my experience as well.