I am going to start adding comment feeds to my RSS reader I guess. Here is something I posted over on Hugo’s place about his thoughts on traditional “American masculinity”. He isn’t a fan.
it’s that traditional American masculinity leaves little room for men to become full and complete human beings.
I disagee. In fact I find many fo the attributes of “taditional American asculinity” allow those who posess them to live more full and complete lives than many of those I see who don’t have them. In essence, they boil down to:
* Defend what you believe in
* Don’t whine and cry when faced with adversity, toughen up and deal with it
* Be loyal
* Keep your wordThose are good qualities. I see way too many people who are so busy venting their emotions all over their environment they never get much done. One of my girls works in a large financial institution and rarely does a week go by that she isn’t mentioning someone or other who broke down in tears during a work conflict.
Breaking down into sobs at work is supposed to be progress? That’s an indication of a full human life? I’ll pass.
My relationships with my significant others is stronger because I don’t vent all over them every moment. My relationships with my male friends are incredibly strong. We don’t need to talka bout our emotions endlessly… we are always there if we are needed. If a friend calls me up and says “what are you up to? I need to get out for a little while” I always say “I’ll be right there”. We don;t need a 4 hour group discussion… he asks, I answer with my friendship. Thats not stunted or incomplete in any way. That feeling of profound support and loyalty is a constant source of good feelings for all of us.
I am not realy sure what attributes of being a “full and complete” human being I am supposed to b e lacking by thinking traditional masculinity isn’t a bad thing.