Masculinity on actual society.
Trouvé sur un blog en anglais et comme pour le site de Navie que j'applaudis, là aussi une femme qui se pose sur la déroute de la société masculine en posant les bonnes questions (attention y'a de quoi lire).
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" I'm going to rant some more about masculinity, because I think it's a very interesting subject. As a feminist I've spend so many years thinking about what it means to be a woman and women's positions in society, and now I'm turning my attention to the fellas'.
One thing I think is very telling is how in a lot of cultures where children have to go through rites to become adults, it's only the boys who activity have to do something about it. The girls however just start menstruating and then they're considered adults. In other words, girls can become women on their own, they don't need help for that, but boys have to learn how to become men, it's not a natural development, it has to be forced.
I think that translates very well to our modern western civilization. Being a man in the eyes of your fellow humans is a lot harder than to be seen as a woman. Being a woman has more to do with how you look these days. Put on some earrings and a skirt. There! Woman! (very simply put of course). As long as you look like a woman you can be whatever your heart desires. A housewife, a police officer, a firefighter, or even your country's leader. It may still be a man's world in a lot of ways, but if you put your mind to it, it's possible. Heck, you can be a drinking, fighting, swearing bitch, but you'll still be a woman (You may not be considered a "lady" though).
Being a man however is not only about what you look like, but also how you act. There are so many things men are not "allowed to do". That guy over there smelled a flower!? KILL THE FAGGOT!!! And the worst part is that men are not doing each other or themselves any favors by dictating these rules to each other. (or women on men, for that matter)
Here's an odd example: During viking times up here in the north, men were by law not allowed to wear women's clothes and would have to pay fines and suffer ridicule if he did so, and to say to a man that he was pregnant was worse than calling his mother a whore. They didn't even have an offensive word for gay, but they had a swear word for men who acted as women (which was not the same to them). You'd think that in a society like that women were seen as lesser beings, but oddly enough they weren't. Everything suggest that women were just as respected as men. They were even in charge of how the household's money should be spend, which was completely unique to vikings at the time, and recently it has been discovered that they had a lot of warrior women who joined the men in their raids, swords and shields in hand. And this will probably surprise a lot of people, but a man who raped a woman was punished with death.
And still it was offensive to call a man a woman, and the men suffered for it. Men were born into a cast of sort and couldn't marry a woman of higher status than himself, so if he was poor he would have to stay poor until the day he died. Women however could marry whoever they wanted, then divorce the guy if he didn't treat her well and take off with half his fortune (They had a list of reasons why a woman could divorce a man, like him hitting her, him not getting along with her family, him not wanting to have sex with her, if he wore her clothes, and so on). Their role as men restricted them an awful lot, so acting as scary manly men didn't do them much good other than frightening the English.
And isn't it much the same today? You're a woman and wants to be a police officer? You go girl! You're a guy and wants to be a nurse? Pfft! You want a tampon too?
Women has a lot more freedom to be who and what they want today than men (yes, I know the opposite is also true. Man with a lot of sexual partners = Stud. Woman with a lot of sexual partners = Whore. But even a woman who has had a lot of sexual partners is more respected than a man who has had none), so I think it's important for men to have their own revolution. Also because if men stop thinking that they have to be super scary manly men to be worth anything, women wouldn't have to suffer as many violent acts. It's very important that we find some kind of balance.
End of rant."
-------------
" I'm going to rant some more about masculinity, because I think it's a very interesting subject. As a feminist I've spend so many years thinking about what it means to be a woman and women's positions in society, and now I'm turning my attention to the fellas'.
One thing I think is very telling is how in a lot of cultures where children have to go through rites to become adults, it's only the boys who activity have to do something about it. The girls however just start menstruating and then they're considered adults. In other words, girls can become women on their own, they don't need help for that, but boys have to learn how to become men, it's not a natural development, it has to be forced.
I think that translates very well to our modern western civilization. Being a man in the eyes of your fellow humans is a lot harder than to be seen as a woman. Being a woman has more to do with how you look these days. Put on some earrings and a skirt. There! Woman! (very simply put of course). As long as you look like a woman you can be whatever your heart desires. A housewife, a police officer, a firefighter, or even your country's leader. It may still be a man's world in a lot of ways, but if you put your mind to it, it's possible. Heck, you can be a drinking, fighting, swearing bitch, but you'll still be a woman (You may not be considered a "lady" though).
Being a man however is not only about what you look like, but also how you act. There are so many things men are not "allowed to do". That guy over there smelled a flower!? KILL THE FAGGOT!!! And the worst part is that men are not doing each other or themselves any favors by dictating these rules to each other. (or women on men, for that matter)
Here's an odd example: During viking times up here in the north, men were by law not allowed to wear women's clothes and would have to pay fines and suffer ridicule if he did so, and to say to a man that he was pregnant was worse than calling his mother a whore. They didn't even have an offensive word for gay, but they had a swear word for men who acted as women (which was not the same to them). You'd think that in a society like that women were seen as lesser beings, but oddly enough they weren't. Everything suggest that women were just as respected as men. They were even in charge of how the household's money should be spend, which was completely unique to vikings at the time, and recently it has been discovered that they had a lot of warrior women who joined the men in their raids, swords and shields in hand. And this will probably surprise a lot of people, but a man who raped a woman was punished with death.
And still it was offensive to call a man a woman, and the men suffered for it. Men were born into a cast of sort and couldn't marry a woman of higher status than himself, so if he was poor he would have to stay poor until the day he died. Women however could marry whoever they wanted, then divorce the guy if he didn't treat her well and take off with half his fortune (They had a list of reasons why a woman could divorce a man, like him hitting her, him not getting along with her family, him not wanting to have sex with her, if he wore her clothes, and so on). Their role as men restricted them an awful lot, so acting as scary manly men didn't do them much good other than frightening the English.
And isn't it much the same today? You're a woman and wants to be a police officer? You go girl! You're a guy and wants to be a nurse? Pfft! You want a tampon too?
Women has a lot more freedom to be who and what they want today than men (yes, I know the opposite is also true. Man with a lot of sexual partners = Stud. Woman with a lot of sexual partners = Whore. But even a woman who has had a lot of sexual partners is more respected than a man who has had none), so I think it's important for men to have their own revolution. Also because if men stop thinking that they have to be super scary manly men to be worth anything, women wouldn't have to suffer as many violent acts. It's very important that we find some kind of balance.
End of rant."