Men's Liberation
This community is first and foremost a feminist community for men and masc people, but it is also a place to talk about men’s issues with a particular focus on intersectionality.
Rules
Everybody is welcome, but this is primarily a space for men and masc people
Non-masculine perspectives are incredibly important in making sure that the lived experiences of others are present in discussions on masculinity, but please remember that this is a space to discuss issues pertaining to men and masc individuals. Be kind, open-minded, and take care that you aren't talking over men expressing their own lived experiences.
Be productive
Be proactive in forming a productive discussion. Constructive criticism of our community is fine, but if you mainly criticize feminism or other people's efforts to solve gender issues, your post/comment will be removed.
Keep the following guidelines in mind when posting:
- Build upon the OP
- Discuss concepts rather than semantics
- No low effort comments
- No personal attacks
Assume good faith
Do not call other submitters' personal experiences into question.
No bigotry
Slurs, hate speech, and negative stereotyping towards marginalized groups will not be tolerated.
No brigading
Do not participate if you have been linked to this discussion from elsewhere. Similarly, links to elsewhere on the threadiverse must promote constructive discussion of men’s issues.
Recommended Reading
- The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity, And Love by bell hooks
- Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements by Michael Messner
Related Communities
!feminism@beehaw.org
!askmen@lemmy.world
!mensmentalhealth@lemmy.world
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I haven't fully read the article, but just from skimming it, it doesn't really present any solutions, does it? Just "stop being traditionally masculine bro". That's not terribly helpful.
There's a degree to which deconstruction of these sorts of topics automatically does work to dismantle them. For those with an egalitarian inclination, it is usually enough to point out unfair actions they have taken in the past to prevent them in the future. Obviously, there's a lot more external pressure here (one of the main focuses of the article) but I would argue this is even more relevant in that case.
If we were to try to teach a fish how to clean the water they live in, we must first start with what water is.
That's fair. At points in the article, I was thinking "duh" but that may not be true for everyone. Perhaps I'm just not the audience.
What do you think an alternative to traditional masculinity might look like?
I actually think that we're all better off without normative gender roles. To that end, I think that any attempt to define an alternative masculinity leaves you with something that is just as restrictive.
What is gender if we don't have a societal idea of gender? Is it nothing? The existence of trans people suggests that many, probably most of us, have an innate yearning for at least a loose idea of gender identity.
So I'm not necessarily advocating for a world without individual gender expression. The key difference here is external vs internal pressures.