5 ms·
I'm sometimes intrigued that working class men have the time and energy to worry about abstract concepts like "what it means to be a man". Things relating to ge
by throwaway999888 11y ago
I'm sometimes intrigued that working class men have the time and energy to worry about abstract concepts like "what it means to be a man". Things relating to gender sometimes seems like something academics would care more about. Or people with more comfortable jobs and more time on their hands.
But really people from all spheres of life have strong, weak, but at least some opinion about stuff like that. _That_ is even weirder. That we can't just express ourselves how we are, but have to doubt and second-guess things within some identity framework.
- facepalm 11y agoIt's only a feminist narrative that men worry about "what it means to be a man". Usually men just do the things men have to do. It is not just a fantasy that they have to do them. Simple example: somebody has to earn money for food and rent.
- exstudent2 11y agoI think they're confronted with the question of "what it means to be a man" when their wife leaves them. Gary in the article is more upset about his wife(s) leaving him than his loss of a job. At that point I think it's natural to wonder if/why you're no longer able to keep a relationship with the opposite sex.
- wpietri 11y agoIt's not of course that they have spare time. It's that they're forced to spend time on it because society demands continuous performance of gender and rewards highly people who do it well. It's not abstract; it's practical.
- petercooper 11y agoOne of the major roles of academics is to put words and define concepts around things that already exist but that lay people do not consciously think about. The idea of pondering the role of masculinity comes from the feelings and actions men feel and take, it doesn't define them the other way around.
- throwaway999888 11y ago> One of the major roles of academics is to put words and define concepts around things that already exist but that lay people do not consciously think about. But people _do_ consciously think about it. Most people have conceptions, insecurities, and pride around what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman. They are not studying things that people express but are unconscious or indifferent towards.
- imtringued 11y agoI'm sometimes intrigued that humans have the time and energy to worry about breathing.
- throwaway999888 11y agoI know right? It's an automatic bodily function so it's fruitless to worry about it unless someone is actively choking us.
- throwaway999888 11y ago*choking you.