It’s perfectly fine to be a “feminine” man. Young men do not need a vision of “positive masculinity.” They need what everyone else needs: to be a good person who has a satisfying, meaningful life.
It’s perfectly fine to be a “feminine” man. Young men do not need a vision of “positive masculinity.” They need what everyone else needs: to be a good person who has a satisfying, meaningful life.
As someone who was assigned male at birth, and never experienced any dysphoria from it, but who also doesn’t really identify with the term “masculine.”: I think it’s import to remember that for a lot of men, especially those brought up in more traditionalist households, being “manly,” is a core part of how they self identify, and how they relate the world. And when core part of our identity is threatened, our brains react as if our lives were at stake. I don’t know how necessary gender is for a modern society, but so long as so many people place so much importance on their gender it deserves to be respected, the same as any widespread, and deeply held belief.
I think we should always be challenging traditional ideas, and I think offering as many options and viewpoints as possible to younger generations is a good idea. But given the limits of online discourse, I don’t think you can meaningfully reject masculinity, without also rejecting everyone who strongly identify as masculine.