Guess what? Right now I'm working on a project pretty much nonstop because I want to
I'm invested in the task, I want to get back to work immediately after breakfast (right now) because I know what I'm doing is important, and that when I have nothing important to do, I can just play mahjong or something online.
Treating your workers like competent, motivated adults will make them want to be competent, motivated adults.
The biggest problem is that many people require the grind because we lack enough systems to ensure basic needs are met for them. When the grind is the only way to feed your family and afford rent, you gotta grind. The best way to break grind culture is to ensure that basic needs are met only requiring a standard work week and a single job.
This is great context. Particularly as it highlights the differences in gendered experiences. For women it’s in some ways a demand for attractiveness while for men it’s more of a literal command that is more likely to be used in self policing (that is men policing masculine expectations of other men). Also notable that both sentiments seem to be more likely to come from men.
As someone who presents masculine, I have gotten the "be a man" treatment from women several times. Ultimately it does come from a patriarchal standard of society, but its something that is perpetuated by everyone, consciously or otherwise. Not discounting what you are saying, but I think it's important to highlight that toxic masculinity can come from anywhere.
This is absolutely true. I’ve thought about this a lot in reference to a study I once saw on how early education professionals are far more likely to be right-leaning women and how that plays into this phenomena (a cursory google search did not turn up a wealth of evidence so take that with a grain of salt). Particularly because I think that policing of masculinity from women in positions of authority can be incredibly salient for young boys. Unfortunately, for some it is unlikely that they will be exposed to a more feminist perspective until later in life, sometimes much later.
It’s because ultimately we all value ‘strength’ (of varying sorts) over ‘weakness’. We are still far from socially internalising “strength is being able to show weakness”, because in part you need to be strong to deal with the expected pushback of being OK with being ‘weak’.
Sometimes I have thoughts that make me go “Wow what a stupid thought, let’s make sure no one knows I even thought that” and here you are posting yours on the internet for the world to see.
This was one of those that should have made you go “Wow what a stupid thought, let’s make sure no one knows I even thought that”, looks like you’re dumber than you thought.
This is so true. I think for a lot of us this advice (or often command) was most frequently heard in these exact words during adolescence. That said this sentiment can at times feel very present.
In my experience it’s gotten better amongst men. Men telling each other to “man up” has largely died, and they are much better at supporting each other. A lot have gotten much better at recognizing when to ask for help too.
However, I think there are a lot of men in relationships under pressure to always be the rock, the protector and provider. They’re not allowed to have a problem or a weakness. I mean it’s a great way to flush out awful candidate partners. Show a little vulnerability and see how disinterested they get, but it gets tiresome.
I mean it’s a great way to flush out awful candidate partners
I’d say the opposite. It’s an obvious red flag that someone doesn’t open up about anything.
Show a little vulnerability and see how disinterested they get
Not my experience, but something not too different.
In every relationship, someone has to be the safe harbor for the other to withstand the occasional emotional crisis. This role can and should be taken in turns so that each one gets each other’s back. But when your insecurity/vulnerability matches with the other person, it takes a freaking HUGE amount of emotional intelligence and energy to be the person that tanks the crisis this one time and open up about this later, when the other person is ready to take turns.
What I observe in practice is that people (man and women) only learn how to deal with this situation in two extreme ways: 1) spiral into the storm along the partner - which is a fuckup because the other person is not ready for this; 2) suck it up forever and ever - which builds up resentment long-term.
There is a middle path. It takes time to acquire it, it takes even more time to teach it to a partner, but it’s one of the main ingredients of constructive conflict resolution.
The fact that being stoic, emotionless or even cold is seen as a trait of masculinity is incredibly frustrating. I feel men should be encouraged to be passionate and expressive with their emotions. Anger shouldn't be the only one we encourage as a society. Have you ever seen a man glow up about his lego collection, or cry at a beautiful scene in a movie they love? More of that please.
Also, men are just as deserving of support networks as anyone else. Though we all experience life differently, we are all human in the end.
The fact that people took Stoicism, a philosophy that’s basically cognitive behavioral therapy for emotional awareness, and twisted it to mean “stiff upper lip” or “repress everything lest you seem weak” is depressing as hell.
It’s one of the reasons I’ve taken a liking to Diogenes’ Cynicism, seeing past the “social norms” and dumb social organization ideas humans come up with.
I also prefer the Cynics. Diogenes is metal as fuck, but my favourite part of Cynicism is that in my opinion, it contains the only true love story in Greek philosophy, Crates and Hipparchia who influenced Zeno, the founder of Stoicism. I’m a sucker for a good love story.
As a trans woman who grew up being taught boys don’t cry, it’s taken me the better part of 6 years to learn how to connect with my emotions healthily. I’m so sorry that society treats y’all like this. 💜
I basically had suppressed my emotions my whole life. Since puberty I could count on one hand with fingers to spare the number of times I legit cried before transition and it was usually something like death of a pet or family member.
Some of thst was from running on the wrong hormones, but plenty of cis men are able feel emotional on T. A lot was being scared of showing I had emotion.
I’ve faired better as I’m not 2 years into transition and already feel like a different person.
My theory is that because our brains are “wired” to be women, T causes our emotions to be more out of whack. Anecdotally, I’ve met a couple of trans men who felt more attuned to their emotions after starting T.
But yeah, I know what you mean about feeling scared. I’m really glad your transition is going well. Keep on shining your light!
I think it is getting better. I have a “Boys Get Sad Too” hoodie (recommend them wholeheartedly) and so far I have gotten only positive comments, even from people where you might not have expected it.
As I get older it only gets worse. in my 20s I could talk to people about stuff. Now that I'm almost 40, nobody wants anything to do with me the second I open up about any sort of issue going on in my life.
Recently my mother has been dealing with dementia and it's been very hard on me and my sister since my mother is becoming this abusive. Anytime I mention this, even casually to people i used to think of friends, people look at me like I'm an asshole.
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