Addressing the Problem - Framing the Issue

[mthenke]

I keep a blog with a minimal following that serves doubly as a weekly writing exercise and as a repository for my thoughts.

 

In that blog, I've talked about Men's Issues and the need for a better, more expansive narrative surrounding the raising of boys and young men.

 

I guess I'm looking to crowdsource the general array of opinions and perspectives here with regard to attempting to answer the question: "what does it mean to be a man/woman?"

 

Thanks,

 

Matt Henke

[Frosty]

From the perspective of the Mens Rights Movement and from that of a MGTOW, something men are starting to demand more and more is that we drop social expectations of what it means to be a "man", there's a great quote from Paul Elam who runs AVoiceForMen.com which is summed up nicely in this graphic.

 

 

Part of the rapidly growing MGTOW trend online is that men are dismissing social expectations of what it means to be a man and defining that for themselves, when other people place expectations on what it means to be a man and they can shame you for not living up to those expectations then they gain control over you and you're no longer free. The fear of being shamed for not being a real man has controlled men for a very long time and we're starting to see the very early stages of change.

 

The biggest change we've seen so far is in the Japanese Herbivore culture, so called grass eaters. These are a large number of men who have simply ignored the old school expectations of what it menas to be a man in their culture, to be aggressive in both the work place and in chasing a wife/family, these men instead have no real interest in making large sums of money or chasing women, rather doing things that they actually enjoy. It's predicted that Japans population will shrink by 1/3rd by 2060 because of falling marriage rates and falling fertility rates.

 

What it means to be a man, or a woman in modern society is something that's starting to be challenged and many men are starting to set their own standards rather than being held hostage to other peoples. So the real question is what do YOU think it means to be a man?