But I find claims that all this means that my long hair/dislike of football/low aggressiveness/finding it easier to befriend women than men/etc.¹ are somehow suboptimal or make my maleness any less valid to be preposterous and/or offensive. (“So I guess your wooden leg makes you a table.”—Frank Zappa) IOW I do have “a strong repulsion from the particular cultural bundle labeled with the gender which matches the dominant one for my sex”. But I don’t see any particular need to throw the baby away with the bath water and stop calling myself a man.
This is why it’s usually said that sex is biological, but gender is socio-cultural. Gender ideals and gender roles can change a lot from one culture to another. You might be a seemingly effeminate man in one place, and yet find that you’re entirely normal in another place. It’s complete delusion to think white North American cultural roles correspond to some Deep Time-driven neurological or evolutionary factor in some special way nobody else on the planet has access to.
Imagine being told that 90% of the planet’s men are less masculine than the median! Does that make the statistician in you perk up his ears and start screaming bloody murder, or what!?
Either way. It doesn’t really matter. An extreme spread between the median and mean, or between the supposed population median and the apparent sample median, indicates that somebody didn’t do their sampling right at some point. Or in other words, they sampled WEIRDoes again instead of global humanity in general.
A lot less than you seem to think. If anything, it’s the feminist-influenced modern western culture that’s the outlier.
I can certainly say that “feminist-influenced modern Western culture” seems a lot more anxious about its manliness and stoicism than the Levantine culture I’m living around right now, which is actually often quite emotive and flamboyant.
Levantine culture I’m living around right now, which is actually often quite emotive and flamboyant.
Does that apply to all feelings or are certain feelings more acceptable for men than others?
I’m from Finland, and you could almost say our emotional culture is the pinnacle of stoicism, especially for men. The main exception is when people are drunk of course, that’s when everything is acceptable.
This is why it’s usually said that sex is biological, but gender is socio-cultural. Gender ideals and gender roles can change a lot from one culture to another. You might be a seemingly effeminate man in one place, and yet find that you’re entirely normal in another place. It’s complete delusion to think white North American cultural roles correspond to some Deep Time-driven neurological or evolutionary factor in some special way nobody else on the planet has access to.
Imagine being told that 90% of the planet’s men are less masculine than the median! Does that make the statistician in you perk up his ears and start screaming bloody murder, or what!?
Than the median man, or than the median person?
Either way. It doesn’t really matter. An extreme spread between the median and mean, or between the supposed population median and the apparent sample median, indicates that somebody didn’t do their sampling right at some point. Or in other words, they sampled WEIRDoes again instead of global humanity in general.
(I had misread “less masculine” as “more masculine”.)
A lot less than you seem to think. If anything, it’s the feminist-influenced modern western culture that’s the outlier.
Sorry, is imagining someone saying something stupid supposed to be an argument for something?
I can certainly say that “feminist-influenced modern Western culture” seems a lot more anxious about its manliness and stoicism than the Levantine culture I’m living around right now, which is actually often quite emotive and flamboyant.
Does that apply to all feelings or are certain feelings more acceptable for men than others?
I’m from Finland, and you could almost say our emotional culture is the pinnacle of stoicism, especially for men. The main exception is when people are drunk of course, that’s when everything is acceptable.
Many/most feelings.