What happens when you sit guys down and really get to the truth about what they were taught about masculinity, and what they believe today?
A riveting two minutes of confessions and questions that will leave you wondering if all these messages we’ve been sending our boys for generations are good or bad.
“Being a man was being strong”
“We don’t talk about our feelings, it’s a very macho culture.”
“I never saw my dad cry, except once in my life. But it freaked me out. I remembered thinking something was wrong, like a machine had shut down.”
“I’ve only cried twice in the past seven years.”
“Back home if somebody looks at you the wrong way, or bumps you the wrong way, you kinda have to do something about it, because it’s testing your manhood.”
Also to add, not because I want to take away from the conversation around men on this topic, but just because I want men to also understand, that when women are confronted with the ideal of femininity being someone who has big breasts, very little body fat, young, thin and goregous, and fits into an idealized male fantasy; we also feel like we are being forced into a box we can’t realistically live up to. That’s all I wanted to say.
Hi Erin You are almost right. But there is no male ideal of feminine beauty, as you understand it. This might sound strange but follow along for a minute. and I know what you’re thinking, “But guys talk about big boobs all the time”. I know, I hear you; but hang on. Think back a century or so, and a few centuries before that. Those men weren’t talking about Barbie dolls as their ideal woman. Rather, it was a more robust woman who catered attention. Or look toward prostitutes (arguably the most objectified of all women) during the time of… Read more »
I wish something like this would be made into a documentary instead of just the short brief two minutes. I read the quotes before I watched the video and just to show my own stereotype, when the man who said, ““Back home if somebody looks at you the wrong way, or bumps you the wrong way, you kinda have to do something about it, because it’s testing your manhood”, spoke, I was surprised he looked the way he did. Because to me, he looks like a clean cut “normal” guy and I associated that quote with someone who would have… Read more »
As I responded to this video under another heading …
““There is no right way to be a guy” …. that sums it up, doesn’t it? But we live in a society that sure says “That’s the wrong way to be a guy.” Why can’t men simply be men without someone saying “oh, that’s wrong.” All humans should simply strive to be better humans”
Math is not my strong suit, but given that there are roughly about 3.5 billion permuations of ‘masculinity’ across the globe, that sampling there of 6 quotes should account for, what? Say about two ten-thousandths of a per cent? If one seek to paint the world as a progressive or as a regressive place, it all depends then on the palate of colors one (or not chooses) to paint with. A painting after all is not reality; it’s an artist’s selective interpretation of it. I’m not surprised that some (or even lots) people had those experiences- but am I reticent… Read more »
It’s all pathetic, and it’s based on false standards of masculinity. The culture gives terrible messages to boys “outside the box.” Compassion and moral courage are disregarded. Despite the fact that these two traits have been the driving force behind many of the most heroic deeds in history, including the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s in this country. In real life many heroes aren’t particularly good-looking and don’t have imposing physiques. I know this, yet I find myself pumping iron in a health club as a man in his sixties. I’ve spent a small fortune on personal… Read more »