It’s degrees. Some may really enjoy parts of their masculinity and other may be really uncomfortable with parts of their masculinity. Some may have so much apathy toward their masculinity that they prefer to avoid the label of man because, though that may most adequately describe them from the outside, they have no desire to apply that label to themselves. The concept and performance of gender is a hodgepodge of various qualities that are complicated, often contradictory, and dependent on tons of external factors.
Those labels are there to assist people while they engage with the nuances of one of the most intrinsic and complex qualities of our subjective experiences in life. It’s messy, but it’s also beautiful that more people are inspecting their lives on such a fundamental level and practicing self determination.
Man is a perfectly fine label for many, but others may not have the same opinion about the term despite sharing similar feelings to OP and many of the people in this thread; and there’s something uniquely human about that which is worth exploring
…and these days there is probably some specialized label to describe that that isn’t merely “man” because that would be too easy.
Heaven forbid people try to describe themselves outside of the binary. 🙄
It’s degrees. Some may really enjoy parts of their masculinity and other may be really uncomfortable with parts of their masculinity. Some may have so much apathy toward their masculinity that they prefer to avoid the label of man because, though that may most adequately describe them from the outside, they have no desire to apply that label to themselves. The concept and performance of gender is a hodgepodge of various qualities that are complicated, often contradictory, and dependent on tons of external factors.
Those labels are there to assist people while they engage with the nuances of one of the most intrinsic and complex qualities of our subjective experiences in life. It’s messy, but it’s also beautiful that more people are inspecting their lives on such a fundamental level and practicing self determination.
Man is a perfectly fine label for many, but others may not have the same opinion about the term despite sharing similar feelings to OP and many of the people in this thread; and there’s something uniquely human about that which is worth exploring