Masculinity

[crossfire]

When it comes to archetypical masculinity and femininity, Carl Jung's various stages of Anima and Animus development are worth taking a look at. There are different levels to masculinity and femininity, going from the more base to the more refined.
Anima and animus - Wikipedia

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Inspired by a recent discussion here.

What exactly IS masculinity? What makes a 'person', "masculine"?

Feminine?

Masculine or virile traits:
Assertiveness
Social dominance behavior
Competitiveness
Physical strength and stamia
Risk taking
Fortitude
Less verbal
More given to physical aggression and anger
Higher sex drive and goal-oriented sexual behavior

Feminine traits:
Nurturing
Better verbal communication
More socially agreeable

(I can't think of more feminine traits off the top of my head, probably because I don't think about it much whereas masculinity has always interested me a lot. But many of those are based in psychological sex differences because the brains of either sex are slightly different and organized somewhat differently.)

 

[Shaul]

Masculinity is simply those things which are characteristics of males. Period.

Oh, and I detest the term "toxic masculinity". It is stupid and sexist.

 

[DharmaCatLamp]

Inspired by a recent discussion here.

What exactly IS masculinity? What makes a 'person', "masculine"?

Feminine?

I think these are mostly terms that only have meaning once you start defining the other term. Both tended to be defined by their opposite within the cultural context. You rarely get anything solid to partake in one way or the other.

 

[DharmaCatLamp]

The soviets right?

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I think it's time to post this one...

 

[Debater Slayer]

Oh, and I detest the term "toxic masculinity". It is stupid and sexist.

It often simply refers to toxic/harmful notions of what "masculinity" is supposed to be. In that sense, I find the term quite useful and applicable to a lot of stereotypically "masculine" traits and behaviors in multiple parts of the world, including extreme jealousy, suppression of natural emotional expression, and looking down on women as subordinate to men or intellectually inferior, among other traits.

 

[We Never Know]

Inspired by a recent discussion here.

What exactly IS masculinity? What makes a 'person', "masculine"?

Feminine?

Strength. Protective. Providing.

It really doesn't matter the answer because it will be critiqued and dissected by others.

 

[Valjean]

Inspired by a recent discussion here.

What exactly IS masculinity? What makes a 'person', "masculine"?

Feminine?

Typical dress, behaviors, attitudes, &c, for each sex, vary culturally. Was there a particular culture you were interested in?

 

[mangalavara]

I guess all in all, I'd say its the way a person interacts with the world; their collection of gestures, facial expressions, humor, movements and impulses. Masculinity and femininity are just poles of this mode of being we all have.

I agree.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Without the union of the masculine and the feminine, the human story wouldn't have long to run.

 

[Brickjectivity]

"...Pretty soon he would be hundreds and hundreds of miles away on the great plains and deserts, and among the mountains of the Far West, and would see buffaloes and Indians, and prairie dogs, and antelopes, and have all kinds of adventures, and maybe get hanged or scalped, and have ever such a fine time, and write home and tell us all about it..."
-- from page 1 of Roughing It by Mark Twain c1878

"And now hath every city sent up her tale of men;
The foot are fourscore thousand, the horse are thousands ten.
Before the gates of Sutrium is met the great array,
A proud man was Lars Porsena upon the trysting day"
--paragraph 11 from the translated ballads of Lays of Ancient Rome

"...And though you be done to the death, what then?
If you battled the best you could,
If you played your part in the world of men,
Why, the Critic will call it good..."
from the poem How Did You Die? by Vance Cooke
​

President Abraham Lincoln's favorite poem which he often quoted and wished he had written was Mortality by William Knox. -- Abraham Lincoln's Favorite Poem
Two stanzas from the poem:

"...The saint, who enjoyed the communion of Heaven,
The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven,
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.

So the multitude goes -- like the flower or the weed
That withers away to let others succeed;
So the multitude comes -- even those we behold,
To repeat every tale that has often been told..."
​

An article about men's health on apa.org reads:

"...There’s a joke about a man who goes to the doctor complaining that he sees spots. The receptionist asks, “Have you ever seen a doctor?” And he replies, “No. Just the spots.”

The joke gets laughs because it reflects a truth: Men are much less likely than women to look after their health and see physicians. They’re 25 percent less likely to have visited a health-care provider in the past year, and almost 40 percent more likely to have skipped recommended cholesterol screenings, according to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. As stereotype would have it, nagging from women is the main reason men ever get their health checked out..." -- Why do men die earlier?​

 

[ChristineM]

Inspired by a recent discussion here.

What exactly IS masculinity? What makes a 'person', "masculine"?

Feminine?

Words that build a wall between male and female.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Shakespeare, Sonnet 20 -- to his young patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, who was certainly gay (check out the picture).

A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.

But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.​

 

[Aštra’el]

Masculinity- Ideal male behavior or characteristics, behavioral patterns and characteristics typically associated with the male sex.

Femininity- Ideal female behavior or characteristics, behavioral patterns and characteristics typically associated with the female sex.

Ares is an exemplar of masculinity. Aphrodite is an exemplar of femininity.

 

[SomeRandom]

Masculine or virile traits:
Assertiveness
Social dominance behavior
Competitiveness
Physical strength and stamia
Risk taking
Fortitude
Less verbal
More given to physical aggression and anger
Higher sex drive and goal-oriented sexual behavior

Feminine traits:
Nurturing
Better verbal communication
More socially agreeable

(I can't think of more feminine traits off the top of my head, probably because I don't think about it much whereas masculinity has always interested me a lot. But many of those are based in psychological sex differences because the brains of either sex are slightly different and organized somewhat differently.)

Interestingly enough I always saw a lot of those masculine traits more in my mother than in my father, even though she is far more “traditionally feminine” than I am and ever was. And my father who grew up in the 30s was very soft spoken, nurturing and quite socially agreeable. Not saying he wasn’t “traditionally masculine” because he was in many ways.

Maybe that’s just a cross cultural thing though. Idk
Like I grew up with one foot in two different cultures. East and West and whilst I noticed a lot of cross over with what are considered traditional masculine and feminine traits, there was also a lot of criss crossing of those traits as well. If that makes sense?

 

[Shaul]

It often simply refers to toxic/harmful notions of what "masculinity" is supposed to be. In that sense, I find the term quite useful and applicable to a lot of stereotypically "masculine" traits and behaviors in multiple parts of the world, including extreme jealousy, suppression of natural emotional expression, and looking down on women as subordinate to men or intellectually inferior, among other traits.

If the term isn't sexist then explain why "toxic masculinity" is well used but "toxic femininity" is not.

 

[SomeRandom]

If the term isn't sexist then explain why "toxic masculinity" is well used but "toxic femininity" is not.

Identifying and Overcoming Toxic Femininity
Toxic Femininity: Understanding Toxic Femininity And How It Affects Men
Toxic Femininity