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.
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.