Maiden, Mother, Crone...but for guys...???

[xi_o_teaz]

Okay, so we all know about the 3 primary phases of a woman's life. So what's the male equivalent???

Anyone???

Bonus points will be awarded to Depth of InSight, but points will be taken away for evidence of feminazism |-b

Comments

[xi_o_teaz]

I've been thinking about this for a few days, now. At first, I was trying to recall any specific Traditional divisions. Since I couldn't recall any, I made some up (as I tend to Do):

First, I was thinking that, whereas females have specific bodily changes that they undergo that forcibly usher them into either motherhood (pregnancy) or cronehood (menopause), males don't really have such obvious transitions. One model that occurred to me was:

Boy, Warrior, Elder

Now by "Warrior", I was meaning more of a "free-spirited pursuer of _____". This is where you get the hackers, artists, scientists, rpg geeks, and general (overly?) Focused young males.

The "Fatherly" role doesn't really come into play until the "Elder" phase, which is the cause for many young men's angst--they have many other things they want to do, but for various reasons they end up "Settling Down". Now, it seems that a Settled Life is somewhat biologically important for the successful rearing of offspring, but many males feel a conflicting pressure between "going out there to ________" and "staying here to help out". Of course, it makes sense biologically for a male to postpone his Nesting behaviors until later in Life, as that way he has more access to more potential mates.

If this is true, this would help explain many males' reluctance to Settle Down early in Life. Whereas the female feels the need to Settle (remember we're talking generalities here) to go from childhood to adulthood (indeed, many women feel they derive their primary Identity from Being a "Mother"), the male feels an imperative to hold off on this until later in Life--the Elder phase.

...Or maybe there's just 2 phases for males:

boy, man

...and perhaps the transition happens more in the middle of my "Warrior" phase from above

...of course, many women I know would say that most males I know only have one phase:

Boyhood ;-)

...just thinking out loud, feel free to chime in...