Letters to the Editor
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Blah blah blah
What rubbish. More evidence there is money to be made in irrelevancy, offset as a charitable contribution.
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What's the point?
Is she saying anything that I can't read in a post? This junior reporter nonsense is a waste. I NEVER watch, and it seems many other readers have the same POV. Listen up, Salon.
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simple question simple answer: because they won't admit that men are both different from them and not wrong
ok, all the women's studies departments can now close and their resources can be devoted to real science, like biological research.
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maculinity?
It's really funny that there are men whining that women won't give them permission/support to be masculine. It's even funnier that some women are saying it's OK, go ahead, and BTW - we're not the enemy.
Wow. Is that the antithesis of masculinity or what!
I guess I'm too old school. Gentlemen: Be men, don't apologize for it. Allow women to be women, love them for it. Simple.
As for certain feminists, some won't accept masculinity from a man. Big deal. There are lots of women, even lots of feminists, that actually like men being men. Ignore the haters, focus on the rest.
Then there are the "men" that think that masculinity means denigrating femininity. That's bullshit. Women should ignore guys like that. The best women do ignore such creeps.
Women who embrace their own femininity can be amazing, powerful, and sexy. They balance the masculine and we balance the feminine. Somehow, it all works wonderfully.
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TCF...
...Got a question for your video blog next time around, and perhaps you're enough of an expert on the subject to answer it.
I've heard it said in to reaction to criticism of feminism-- both here and on other feminist blogs-- that one cannot make general criticisms about feminism because feminism is not monolithic and extremely diverse.
And yet, this same rule doesn't apply when one wishes to PRAISE feminism. If I were to say, for instance, "feminism is the best thing since chocolate cake" now feminism IS monolithic enough to generalize about.
So how does that work, TCF? How can feminism not be monolithic enough to criticize, but monolithic enough to praise?
I explained this to a 12 year old girl and she seemed to think it was a completely phony form of argumentation. A 12 year old couldn't be smarter than you, could she?
Really, I'm VERY curious about your take on this matter.
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Sorry TCF, but this is no time to wimp out.
Apart from the derision and condescension, which are not generally helpful, you had it right. Guys who feel emasculated are going to reclaim their masculinity just how? By playing with weapons, bitching about women, returning to safely prescribed gender roles, maybe getting a bigger SUV that looks exactly like a sandlot toy? Sounds like fearful sublimation to me.
If it’s actual courage and assertiveness they want to model, why not confront the standard criminality that gets enabled daily in the workplace (that’s actually risky); or not cheat on taxes and lie to the kids about it this year; or tell daddy, mommy or the in-laws where to go next time they get reminded who’s still in control?
Manliness indeed.
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@J.C.
Wow... where does one start? Your post reeks on man-hating, down to the lying on taxes bit... When did lying on takes become masculine domain? Take your sexist ball and go home...
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Disbelief
Two points. I don't know any men who would say "I need to recover some of my masculinity". This sounds like more feminist echo chamber crap. Secondly, any men that might complain about having to live by women's rules or having to play too many roles are most likely NOT complaining about all women, they would be likely complaining about feminism.....that is a significantly smaller percentage of the female population. You know the loud minority, broadsheet feminism...ie radical feminism...ie dictate to men what is acceptable behavior feminism.
I really wish the Telegraph article had a link to the survey. Although it was done in the UK, I would really like to see the wording of the questions since some of the results are implausible.
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Here's what I don't get...
How exactly is responding to a survey considered complaining? As far as I can tell, men aren't complaining about any of this stuff. A group of men were asked some questions and they answered them. If I asked you how the weather is in San Francisco, and you answer that it is lousy, does that mean that you are complaining about the weather? The fact that anyone is surprised by the results of this survey shows that most men do not complain about these issues, and only discuss them when the issue is forced upon them. (Or else it shows that most men do not, in fact, agree with these conclusions.)
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There is no shortage of masculinity
That is some fantasy made up by women, who feed men this falsely designed question, and men respond, but to the WRONG QUESTION-- a question that just sounds right. What guy would not want to answer such a question in the affirmative?
The REAL issue is that men try to do as they please, but are thwarted. Some men act hyper masculine, some men prefer to be in the middle, some prefer to exhibit feminine traits. The problem with this is that there is a lot of pressure for men to act a certain way, mostly coming from women.
Certainly, one way men are pressured to act is to 'be a man', that tired old trope about men being chivalrous and defending women and the homeland is a contradiction to what men know to be true, that women are not held to the same standards and limits. Another way men are pressured is to be like stereotypical men, as people see men should be, because despite what radical feminists say, their much more common and numerous sisters think a guy is a sissy if he exhibits any of a range of typical behaviors women can get away with. So many women wonder what is wrong with a guy if he hates football or if he is into macrame, for instance.
At core, this is about women having too much say in how men act, what men think, or say, or do. It is true that men should do whatever feels right to them.
Being ensconced in a female overloaded school system and surrounded by women giving young men messages, many men do receive the wrong messages about how to be and act. Fathers used to fill the role of teaching men about what life is REALLY like for men and what men need to do to negotiate it. Since women have infiltrated and destroyed that relationship between boys and their fathers, this is now a dicey proposition, never mind the PC brigade that makes men afraid to speak their mind and teach their boys what needs to be said.
This is becoming a sissy planet, no doubt about it. The only boys making out are the insolent ones who ignore the messages and zoom forward to the head of the line when it comes to 'servicing' girls. Two types of men at core, the tricked, deluded ones who are frustrated chumps, and the winners, the ones who truly have a grasp of the enormity of the female problem.
Let me put it another way, when is the last time you heard a woman say to a man, "you act the way you feel you should act, do not worry about what I or any woman think, and I will be kind and good to you anyway, giving you love and affection without judgement". You never hear it because women at core think it is their job to tell us what to do, be, think.
That is the real crisis. That and the damning hidden nature of it. The assumed arrogance of the women around us that makes them think they are entitled to be this way towards men. Heck, they cannot even acknowledge the existence of it all to you when you ask them about it.