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What can be done to rebalance society's views on masculinity? What does healthy masculinity even look like? (kbin.social)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Men get so many mixed messages in today's society, from being called toxic to being pushed to be top dog (or else you're a loser). There are lots of expectations put on men, and various ways men rebel against those.

What can be done to address society's negative views of men and masculinity? And how can we formulate what healthy masculinity looks like, so we can teach that to our boys?

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[–] cyborganism 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man, who cares. It's not about masculinity or feminity.

Just be yourself and be kind to others. That's all that matters.

You're enough.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We care. Because there is a lot of negative messaging about men, and young men especially get distorted ideas because of that. As an educator that's important to me.

[–] cyborganism 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I understand your point.

What I'm trying to say is that we should teach young boys and men that masculinity is just a stupid outdated concept. You don't have to be a certain way to be a man. You don't have to act a certain way or do certain things to be manly. Just being yourself and being kind ought to be enough.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I disagree. Gender doesn't become meaningless just because we have difficulties defining it within modern sensibilities. There is something about gender that drives certain people to want to transition, for example, and it's not just about genitalia.

Now if you mean to say that one doesn't have to be a masculine man to still be a man, I agree. Tho it does make certain things (e.g. dating) a lot more difficult when you're an unmasculine man.

[–] cyborganism 1 points 1 year ago

Gender is different. Gender is gender.

Masculinity is a group of qualities or attributes regarded as characteristics of men. And I think men are relying too much on it to define themselves. Then when trying to find models of masculinity, you stumble upon jackasses like Andrew Tate.

If we forget the concepts of masculinity and femininity and just do what feels good and feels right, then we don't need these concepts and we can finally free ourselves from any definition and just be.