Indicative of the huge conservative backlash against Bud Light for its branding partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a fellow named @0xAlaric continued the culture war against woke beer on Twitter:
Light beer was a hallmark of American masculinity. It united blue collar workers, frat guys, soldiers… everybody could unite around a bar and order a Miller, Coors, Busch, etc.
The new managerialists can’t allow that symbol to continue.
So they’re destroying it.
Setting aside for the moment his invocation of “the new managerialists” which is no doubt a hot new frame on the Alt-R for targeting #ADEI initiatives in organizations, here’s where I come down on all that.
Men, if we think the stuff at the store defines our masculine community, how many other terrible ideas about being a man in America have we also been sold?
How much authentic community has to be blocked for men that we see light beer brands as the foundation of our collective community? These are the kinds of symbols that men think create community for us because our dominance-based masculine culture forbids anything deeper.
Men in Man Box culture hide our authentic selves, relying on conformity driven, surface level friendships of proximity. “Yeah, I have lots of friends at the gym.” But if we change gyms, we drop all those friends and pick up new ones because what’s the difference, right?
The end result of lifetimes of hiding who we authentically are in order to fit into the rigid conformity of our dominance-based culture of masculinity is deep disconnection and loneliness. Driven by the anxiety this creates, we double down on dominance when ever we’re challenged.
Man Box culture is a self-isolating, closed loop of dominance behaviors, accelerating more isolation, which in turn drives more dominance behaviors. Bottom line? Loneliness has the same health impact as smoking. Men die younger.
But hey, we get to be really mad at a beer brand.
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Rather have healthy masculinity podcasts and book resources instead? Links are here: http://linktr.ee/RemakingManhood
READ MORE:
Why It’s Time to Crack Open a Beer and Embrace Trans Rights
The Conservative War on Everything
More from Mark Greene:
Men’s Work and the Wounded Child
Men Who Support Forced Pregnancy Support Rape Culture
Avoiding the Grief of Male Allyship
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