One that always annoyed me is when it is around the holidays, when stores advertise gifts for men. They always assume a guy is into toilet humor, beer humor, assuming they’re a lumberjack who needs to survive out in the wilderness, are into bbq-ing all of the time so gotta have those available all year around for some reason.
Even when I used to have identified myself as a guy, I never once fit into any of those traits. Just because guys grow beards, doesn’t always mean they’re chopping wood somewhere and always wearing plaid.
Anything machismo. Guys shouldn’t take pride in being big dumb oafs that can swig gasoline if they wanted to.
I even think our current view on machismo is too product-driven, rather than traditional male values.
Don’t learn to build a cabin, because that’s old fashioned. But do DRINK BEER, and drive a big truck, and mock clean energy initiatives because real men love the ROAR of an expensive motor paid for by oil companies!
Old values would’ve been about treating a lady right, or standing up for what you believe in - even if it was as simple as punching someone who mocked your wife.
I agree about male values, but has ‘machismo’ ever meant those things?
Males with exaggerated pride are rarely a positive, after all…
It can be bad to demonize all forms of pride coming from one gender. I get what you mean, but we also want to encourage things people should be prideful for. The classic image of being a gentleman, which we can continue to redefine based on what society most needs. Sometimes even just people using their physical, gender-granted strength for societally positive ways can be good.
We just happen to be in a rut of people lost in a vein of toxic masculinity because they don’t see/know of any good ways to flex on the world, and feel some agency within it.
I get what you mean, which is why I said, “exaggerated” pride.
It’s fine to be a touch prideful in good things. People need self-motivation after all. Though the people that take pride in BS, and especially vile BS like Trumpism, racism, etc, etc, are just gross, stupid people.
By all means let’em win Darwin Awards.