Counterpoint: Being proud of something you did not choose to participate in is a post-hoc rationalisation and just a bit self-delusional.
The statement: "I am proud to be a man", makes as much sense to me as "I am proud to be right-handed".
I am proud of several achievements in my life and ashamed of my behaviour in others. A statement I assume applies to most people. My gender has nothing to do with either.
I do not take credit for the achievements of others of my gender (or of the right-handed...) the same way that I am not responsible for their crimes.
Humans, by our social, tribal nature, love to divide the world into in-groups and out-groups usually to the detriment of all.
As I psychologist, I’m concerned about mental health, especially the mental health of men and boys because it’s been overlooked for so long. Because there was so little interest in how much the negative discourse around masculinity impacts boys, my colleagues and I ran a survey. We found that around 85% of respondents...
It seems like there's a lot of language that the left is using in the gender discussion that's not great.
Indeed, and mostly influenced by feminism. And for a movement that is so sensitive to language, feminism does apply negative language to men quite liberally. Everything negative is named after men. It feels intentional.
Out of curiosity - do we oppose positive generalizations of men as a gender?
I have no problem with positive generalizations such as "men are good". I think that is healthy.
I would object to overgeneralizing by saying for example "all men are good", which is just not true.
I don't think someone needs to be particularly antifeminist to see that mainstream discussion of gender has tended to "other" men, placing men and boys in an oppressor category, ignoring how the discussion might affect them, or genuinely blind to that reality.
While it's true that the term was coined during men's movements of the 80s/90s, it had a different contextual meaning then: more like a counterfeit male code to be contrasted with the idea of a true "deep" masculinity. Apart from that difference, the reality is that most men and boys are not part of a today's "conversation" about masculinity, but instead feel like it is being imposed on them.
Men do not seem like they are proud to be men, and this is detrimental to their mental health. We need to celebrate men instead of demonizing them. ( kbin.social )
Original by u/Oncefa2 on Reddit. Still very relevant today:...
‘Toxic masculinity’ is toxic terminology — The Centre for Male Psychology ( www.centreformalepsychology.com )
As I psychologist, I’m concerned about mental health, especially the mental health of men and boys because it’s been overlooked for so long. Because there was so little interest in how much the negative discourse around masculinity impacts boys, my colleagues and I ran a survey. We found that around 85% of respondents...