"Traditional" Masculinity in Today's Society

[Liam]

Originally Posted by AtLastHome

What is masculine for me is rooted in the feminine.... can't have one without the other. I just don't accept a male-female dichotomy and am so tired of traditional, patriarchal ideas of what is masculine or male... and female or feminine.

Butch as continually defined in the masculine is very limiting and quite gender ignorant to me. Constraining as well and a perpetuation of sexist ideology. If we are going to move beyond the binary, we need to stop this crap.

I accept the fact that the binary doesn't work, for some, however, it works for me, and I find that I have a great deal of freedom in my masculinity. I don't find it to be a rigid construct, that dictates what I do or don't do, but one that I and other masculine people are shaping, minute by minute, day by day, with the choices that we make in our lives.

I embrace ways of being which are considered "traditional," for males, yet I am also sensitive, and capable of talking about my feelings. Discussing my feelings, was not something that came naturally to me, I worked very hard for many years to learn how to communicate with people, and even more years and hard work to learn how to identify and express my feelings.

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Liam

I accept the fact that the binary doesn't work, for some, however, it works for me, and I find that I have a great deal of freedom in my masculinity. I don't find it to be a rigid construct, that dictates what I do or don't do, but one that I and other masculine people are shaping, minute by minute, day by day, with the choices that we make in our lives.

I embrace ways of being which are considered "traditional," for males, yet I am also sensitive, and capable of talking about my feelings. Discussing my feelings, was not something that came naturally to me, I worked very hard for many years to learn how to communicate with people, and even more years and hard work to learn how to identify and express my feelings.

What you are saying here is not at all like what is so often perpetuated about the masculine as traditional. You are able to express feelings and it sounds like, that even though this took some work, you value this.

I can get behind shaping new dimensions of masculinity, but when I read stereotypic, traditional patriarchal foundations of masculine being viewed as desirable, I just can't see much of a difference between old and new in terms of gender identification.

I certainly do understand feeling more free with integrating what is known about gender today. Actually, it is exactly this that adds to my own comfort in being a butch woman.