wetheliving
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The End of Masculinity
Masculinity as we used to define it is on its way out. Is this a bad thing or perhaps not at all?
Let’s look at the origins of this process, I will explain things as simple as possible.
Masculinity or “men being real men” has its roots in female dependency on males, which has always been physical. Men were stronger and bigger. In every day life when it came to building things, hunting things or fighting things, physical strenght mattered and men were stronger than women, thus making women dependant on men. Especially when a woman becomes pregnant she is highly vulnerable physically and need others around her to survive, men have never had this problem which is perhaps the reason why women are more socially oriented and men more solitary in comparison.
We can say that by nature, women need men to survive, because of the women’s physical vulnerability. Now if someone is dependant on someone, they are usually submisive towards the independent party, which is more likely to be dominant. This explains a woman’s natural submissiveness towards a man.
When did this all change?
Since the middles ages up until now, we have seen human society move towards urbanisation, industrialisation and globalisation. We have seen the industrial revolution, the invention of electricity, firearms, cars, aeroplanes and the rise of the service industry take place.
With these developments has also come the rise of the nanny state, where the government has ensured that people become less and less self-reliant (need help?, call this number!). This process has in fact rendered the physical obsolete, merely to function as a form of entertainment (sports). Who needs a good shape if you can drive to everywhere? Who needs to be able to defend themselves if you can call the cops? Don’t built a house, buy one that’s already built!
Of course this process has made women less dependant of men and has subsequently led to the rise of feminism and to the downfall of masculinity.
Surely we can discuss the intellectual superiority of males in comparison to females, if there is one, but the fact is that is completely irrelevant since you don’t need to posses brilliant logic for most jobs in todays society, so that isn’t an issue that makes women dependant on men. So the physical superiority of men having become irrelevant, it’s natural that women have become less submissive towards men.
So what’s the problem?
Women having top functions, starting businesses is of course not in itself a problem, in fact it has shown us that certain women are in fact better at certain things than most men. The problems lies more within the realms of interpersonal relationships between men and women. Once upon a time when women were dependent on men, society was not so career oriented and individualistic as nowadays, family was more important and so was the obligation of people to fill certain social roles.
People didn’t care that much about the deeper inner workings of a person and people in fact married often for practical reasons. Families had a big say in these marriages (think arranged marriages)and ones own feelings towards something were not that highly regarded, in contrast to now, where emotions are considered to be the end all and be all, just ask Oprah or Dr.Phil.
Anywho, people were raised more to fill a certain social role as said before, which meant your professional as well as private role. Private role meant being a man or woman. A man had a certain protocol to follow, certain ways in which to behave as did women. Happy marriages came forth out of compatability, practically that is: The man does the man’s part of the deal, the woman, the woman’s part of the deal.
This expectation of being a lady or a gentlemen, in fact challenged people to live up to certain images, afterall it was a man responsibilty to be a good husband and take care of his wife and provide for her, just as a woman had her responsibilities. Herein lies one of the keys, the pressure on people actually challenged them, as everyone must know giving someone responsibility and challenging gets the best out of people and it was in fact this that helped especially the men to be the best they could be through the loving support of a lady and the upbringing emphasizing his responsibilities towards society and his wife.
The individualistic society of these days puts less emphasis on family or society’s expectations or social roles and more emphasis on personal freedom to do whatever you want.
So the key developments of the last centuries have, at least in the west, erased the importance of physical strength and also promoted individualism for both sexes, which has led to a disregard for traditional social roles and the emancipation of women. Unfortunately, but logically this has also led to a decrease of respect for men, this blatantly becoming apparent in the media in recent years, making succesful relationships more and more rare.
I could go into the downside of this and dive more deeply into the subject if people are interested, so if people respond we could get a nice discussion going, at least let me know what you think.
Masculinity as we used to define it is on its way out. Is this a bad thing or perhaps not at all?
Let’s look at the origins of this process, I will explain things as simple as possible.
Masculinity or “men being real men” has its roots in female dependency on males, which has always been physical. Men were stronger and bigger. In every day life when it came to building things, hunting things or fighting things, physical strenght mattered and men were stronger than women, thus making women dependant on men. Especially when a woman becomes pregnant she is highly vulnerable physically and need others around her to survive, men have never had this problem which is perhaps the reason why women are more socially oriented and men more solitary in comparison.
We can say that by nature, women need men to survive, because of the women’s physical vulnerability. Now if someone is dependant on someone, they are usually submisive towards the independent party, which is more likely to be dominant. This explains a woman’s natural submissiveness towards a man.
When did this all change?
Since the middles ages up until now, we have seen human society move towards urbanisation, industrialisation and globalisation. We have seen the industrial revolution, the invention of electricity, firearms, cars, aeroplanes and the rise of the service industry take place.
With these developments has also come the rise of the nanny state, where the government has ensured that people become less and less self-reliant (need help?, call this number!). This process has in fact rendered the physical obsolete, merely to function as a form of entertainment (sports). Who needs a good shape if you can drive to everywhere? Who needs to be able to defend themselves if you can call the cops? Don’t built a house, buy one that’s already built!
Of course this process has made women less dependant of men and has subsequently led to the rise of feminism and to the downfall of masculinity.
Surely we can discuss the intellectual superiority of males in comparison to females, if there is one, but the fact is that is completely irrelevant since you don’t need to posses brilliant logic for most jobs in todays society, so that isn’t an issue that makes women dependant on men. So the physical superiority of men having become irrelevant, it’s natural that women have become less submissive towards men.
So what’s the problem?
Women having top functions, starting businesses is of course not in itself a problem, in fact it has shown us that certain women are in fact better at certain things than most men. The problems lies more within the realms of interpersonal relationships between men and women. Once upon a time when women were dependent on men, society was not so career oriented and individualistic as nowadays, family was more important and so was the obligation of people to fill certain social roles.
People didn’t care that much about the deeper inner workings of a person and people in fact married often for practical reasons. Families had a big say in these marriages (think arranged marriages)and ones own feelings towards something were not that highly regarded, in contrast to now, where emotions are considered to be the end all and be all, just ask Oprah or Dr.Phil.
Anywho, people were raised more to fill a certain social role as said before, which meant your professional as well as private role. Private role meant being a man or woman. A man had a certain protocol to follow, certain ways in which to behave as did women. Happy marriages came forth out of compatability, practically that is: The man does the man’s part of the deal, the woman, the woman’s part of the deal.
This expectation of being a lady or a gentlemen, in fact challenged people to live up to certain images, afterall it was a man responsibilty to be a good husband and take care of his wife and provide for her, just as a woman had her responsibilities. Herein lies one of the keys, the pressure on people actually challenged them, as everyone must know giving someone responsibility and challenging gets the best out of people and it was in fact this that helped especially the men to be the best they could be through the loving support of a lady and the upbringing emphasizing his responsibilities towards society and his wife.
The individualistic society of these days puts less emphasis on family or society’s expectations or social roles and more emphasis on personal freedom to do whatever you want.
So the key developments of the last centuries have, at least in the west, erased the importance of physical strength and also promoted individualism for both sexes, which has led to a disregard for traditional social roles and the emancipation of women. Unfortunately, but logically this has also led to a decrease of respect for men, this blatantly becoming apparent in the media in recent years, making succesful relationships more and more rare.
I could go into the downside of this and dive more deeply into the subject if people are interested, so if people respond we could get a nice discussion going, at least let me know what you think.
