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Men confess what feminine things they'd do if stereotypes didn't exist

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why they had to advertise this shit with a brother?
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https://www.the-pool.com/news-views/opinion/2017/2/what-men-would-do-if-stereotypes-didnt-exist








Sew, pamper, wear yoga pants, wear skirts, according to a new Reddit thread. And they'd cry, too

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Posted by Zoë Beaty on 12.01.17

World War I. Women in Britain are venturing into unknown territory – they’re building ammunition, they’re populating factories, confronting danger, becoming heroines of the homefront as they reshape gender norms as we know them forever. They smash through it. Now, in a slightly more trivial way, the men of Reddit yesterday had their own moment to smash through the gender stereotypes we still uphold all these years on. Only, instead of votes, these guys want… Yoga pants. And they want to talk about mental health.

The conversation was started on a thread asking commenters “what thing would you do if it wasn’t so ‘feminine’ or socially ‘unacceptable’?” And the hundreds of answers were insightful. Who knew that guys were so into sewing? And how they wish they too could smell “like a bed of roses”? The men confessed that they’d love to wear sundresses (“those things look like heaven”), to order “fruity drinks”, to cover up dark circles with make-up, and wear skirts. One user says, simply: “I’d knit so hard, bro.”

For a while, the thread is quite entertaining. While it’s laying the restrictive stereotypes out plainly for all to see, it’s also light-hearted. There’s an enlightening conversation about quilting and how lovely it is to give a quilt as a gift, swiftly followed by a discussion on laser hair removal to tidy up a hairy bum. Apparently the vast majority of men are taken with the idea of snuggling up in yoga pants and leggings.

Paint your nails. Buy yourself flowers. Wear floral perfume and scrub your skin until it’s soft. And cry. And be emotional, and break down masculinity and femininity for what they are – meaningless, disempowering social constructs

But some things are more difficult to say. “I feel like I haven’t cried in years, but sometimes I feel like I just want to break down,” says one guy. “It’s hard to keep things bottled up all the time,” says another. “Men can be just as emotional as the average woman,” another says, “but at any sign of vulnerability or weakness, we are told to ‘man up’.” A final note on the thread reads, “I want to be a stay-at-home-dad. Everyone expects a man to have goals and career aspirations. That’s not really me.”

It’s not him, it’s not any of the other guys on there trying so desperately to uphold the image society says he must, and it shows all too clearly that gender stereotyping isn’t good for anyone. We might have come a long way in recent years – gender is more fluid, and a shift in attitudes has seen a more liberal outlook when it comes to identity. Feminism has been working to break down the female stereotypes which, in turn, prop up the ideals of what a man should be. But there’s a long way to go. Still femininity is devalued in society and the notion of a feminine man is wrapped in tired homophobic and transphobic attitudes.

It’s well-documented that the pressure for men to reach an “ideal masculinity” is leaving them vulnerable to ill mental health – lonely, disconnected, and unable to communicate. And in that light, there’s little wonder that suicide is the biggest killer among men under 45 in the UK.

And it’s leaving them unable to do what they want for fear of persecution or ridicule. When I text my friends to see what they would do under the circumstance, one said he’d wear more feminine clothes. Another said he’d want to get his nails done, and his friend – an electrician – would have been a florist.

But the thread was hopeful. Their wishes to wear a skirt, or to pamper more, or taking up sewing as a hobby (“It’s just building stuff in a different medium,” one user floated) were met with nothing but encouragement. Other men up-voted and commented, and lent support in each other’s choices. Some were so enamoured by the positive responses that they said they might just go and wear a skirt out, or “buy myself something sparkly”.

And they should. Screw stereotypes and the effort it takes to uphold them, and the sadness that they can bring. Paint your nails. Buy yourself flowers. Wear floral perfume and scrub your skin until it’s soft. And cry. And be emotional, and break down masculinity and femininity for what they are – meaningless, disempowering social constructs, which are holding us all back. And maybe then, we’ll really start getting somewhere.

@zoe_beaty
 
i just hate how the shit is advertised with a black man..

i feel like they go o hard to emasculate us first...why not show the white metrosexuals they prolly interviewed for this shit

Zoe ain't fucking with dread head brothers...
 
Yea there's some things in the article I don't see wrong with doing, but rockin skirts? [';;l;
 
Yea there's some things in the article I don't see wrong with doing, but rockin skirts? [';;l;
In some cultures, men wear sarongs traditionally. How is that different from a skirt? Acceptability? Culture changes all the time. What's feminine now might not be in 100yrs.
 
In some cultures, men wear sarongs traditionally. How is that different from a skirt? Acceptability? Culture changes all the time. What's feminine now might not be in 100yrs.

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So you would date a nigga who rock's mini skirts?
 
Lol you're so full of shit b, you know damn well u wouldn't fuck with no nigga rockin skirts.
 
Lol you're so full of shit b, you know damn well u wouldn't fuck with no nigga rockin skirts.
Aight. Not the skirt but talking about feelings, wearing floral scents, sewing and just generally not being restricted by what is/isn't manly? I'm cool with that. I like people who do their own thing.
 
Negro, I just said that.

I'm against social standards for the most part, but I'm not subscribing to this movement people are trying to create regarding doing away with gender roles. Men and women are not the same, stop acting like we are. Men are naturally masculine and women are naturally feminine, it is what it is.
 
Negro, I just said that.

I'm against social standards for the most part, but I'm not subscribing to this movement people are trying to create regarding doing away with gender roles. Men and women are not the same, stop acting like we are. Men are naturally masculine and women are naturally feminine, it is what it is.
,,...
Wait till I'm done with you. You gonna be wearing Flowerbomb and crying to Imitation of Life, macho one.
 
In some cultures, men wear sarongs traditionally. How is that different from a skirt? Acceptability? Culture changes all the time. What's feminine now might not be in 100yrs.
This ain't Africa or the Middle East she talkin the Western world and you know damn well we don't do that over here unless you high fashion and even then somebody gonna call you gay
 
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