The media tells us that it’s difficult for men to know who they’re supposed to be these days, and then some men buy into that story.
If you have no self-judgement it’s easy to know how to be a man, because you are what you are. In fact, a man who has no self-judgements doesn’t even feel the need to worry about if or how he’s being a man; you’re just a person who happens to be male.
This all comes back to the same principle of things being naturally self-defining. ‘What it means to be a man…’, often with the words added, ‘… in the 21st century’, presents difficulty and confusion for men simply because it is all about self-judgement. Even articles about it are destructive because they’re motivated by money. Nobody’s going to extract money from others with a two-word article that just says, “Be yourself.”
- You’re allowed to cry; in fact it’s unhealthy to repress that
- You don’t have to be any more macho than you really are; in fact, you don’t have to be macho at all
- Gentleness and kindness is a strength
- Who are we kidding when we tell ourselves ‘male role model culture’ makes it difficult to know how to respect a woman’s consent and boundaries in all matters?