In the ongoing discussion about the nature of goodness as it applies to masculinity, one thing becomes clear: delineating what is uniquely a masculine experience is challenging, at best.
Shaving your face, for example, is a uniquely masculine experience, a ritual of manhood. What other truly masculine experiences and rituals do men enjoy and participate in?
Photo courtesy of Dharion
Scratching my balls. Other than that I can’t think of much else that is truly masculine, except that when the hard and dirty work needs to be done, most women flee.
One of the first times for me was the first time I went hunting with my dad, having my own gun and actually using it.
I like the truly chivalrous things in life. I enjoy taking a woman out and paying for everything, pulling the chair out for her, holding the door. I enjoy being the honest gentleman, the nice guy. Unfortunately as a member of the younger generation, finding a woman my age who enjoys the treatment with an honest appreciation (not an arrogant entitlement) is difficult.
Shaving your face, for example, is a uniquely masculine experience… I don’t think its always a matter of it being unique. Look at the answers that have already been given. Jake says, “Doing dirty work”. Obviously this is not exclusive to men and depending on what he means by “dirty” I’ll bet women can think of plenty of similar jobs that are associated with women and femininity. David talks about driving a stick shift and points out that being a man isn’t a requirement for it. Now as for my answer I have to go into TMI territory here folks… Read more »
“Now as for my answer I have to go into TMI territory here folks but I have to say it, an erection.”
I’ll give you a reaction, Danny.
Why should you be embarrassed at feeling that an erection is a uniquely masculine experience that you value? IMHO it’s a more realistic and sensible answer, because it’s actually rooted in a male experience rather then some norm of behaviour(that women can also embody.)
I’d qualify it that it’s an _external_ erection that’s a masculine experience, because women do get erections, they’re just internal and not readily visible.
Oh I’m not embarassed about it TB. I was just worried that someone would pull the “oh come on man do you have to go there?” response.
“Hear me out. Now I’ll be the first to agree that this is required to be considered a man not is this unique to men.” Well first, I don’t see why saying that an erection makes you feel more masculine is TMI. It is a masculine experience and, like typhon said, it’s a very logical answer precisely because it’s not about conforming to a social norm. That being said…the only bit I have a problem with is you saying that it is required to be considered a man. A good friend of mine who’s a transman would probably disagree with… Read more »
Hear me out. Now I’ll be the first to agree that this is required to be considered a man not is this unique to men. Ok that was a horrible error on my typing. Please believe me that I was not trying to say that it is required to be considered a man. I was actually trying to say: Hear me out. Now I’ll be the first to agree that this is not required to be considered a man and is not unique to men. (the “not unique” to men part being a nod to TB’s mention of the internal… Read more »
Okey pokey. Based on previous conversations with you I was a bit surprised when I’d read that. Glad to see it’s a typo. 🙂
Now then, carry on having erections and feeling masculine while doing so.
Class dismissed. 😉
Dirty work to me are things like routing out the sewer, removing a dead racoon from the attic or trying to get rid of a bat in the attic. Sometimes I hate having a real old house.
Maybe knowing how to really drive a standard shift. I don’t mean just being able to start/stop/shift but instinctively knowing how/why/when to upshift and downshift, being able drive the vehicle home if the clutch cable or linkage breaks by shifting at just the right rpm when you can do it without even a hint of a grind, that type of thing. You don’t have to be a man to learn this, and it’s becoming a lost art when even large vehicles have some sort of automatic transmission, but I still think it’s basically a masculine thing. (And I don’t currently… Read more »
You mean manual shift cars? Yeah, I’ve always preferred them. With automatics there’s that annoying moment it takes the engine/computer to catch up with what you want it to do.
Doing ‘the dirty work’.
Can’t think of any honestly. Most of the things I enjoy are fairly gender neutral.