Oh good lord! Avery is a troll that I blocked earlier today. I'm not even sure that "she" is an actual "she" and not some boy living in his mother's basement. She has never written any stories and does nothing but go around making inane comments that are easily disproven with actual facts. I put up with Avery for a long time, but I don't want to waste my time swatting trolls all day. Masculine gender norms have a direct correlation to most of the violence and dysfunction in our culture- something that a lot of men recognize, include the American Psychological Association. Men should stop participating in those and start actively challenging them if they don't want to be accused of contributing to harmful dynamics - because if you aren't actively challenging them, then you are complicit in them.
Men’s violence against women is a pervasive social phenomenon with deep roots in existing personal, social, and institutional arrangements. In order for people to understand and ultimately work together to prevent it, it is first necessary for them to engage in a great deal of personal and collective introspection. This introspection can be especially threatening to men, because as perpetrators and bystanders, they are responsible for the bulk of the problem.
Katz, Jackson. The Macho Paradox (p. 24). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.
Newsflash, Rex - the Equimundo study was done in 2017. The term Man Box had already been around since the 1990s. You are grasping at irrelevant straws yet again.
There is absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever with calling the Act Like a Man Box just exactly that - or Man Box for short. It very clearly provides a visual for how restrictive and claustrophobic these socialized gender norms are. It is not "man bashing" - it was a term invented by men who are trying to assist other men. It's invokes a box of devised masculinity that this culture tries to force men into and that punishes them when they resist that. It's a box that is upheld to some extent by women. It's an incredibly evocative and a much more useful term than say, hegemonic masculinity - although both speak to the same norms and the same sort of idealized and often unattainable social identity.
Some men have started referring to it as confined masculinity (because that's what these norms do) they constrict the free expression of individuality by demanding only a small number of acceptable behaviors, many of which also happen to be harmful to men and to everyone else. Men are killing themselves because of the pressures of these artificial norms. Why is that not your primary focus and concern?????
The "general perception that men are more of a problem than they are worth" is one of the reasons that I wrote this OP - to give men some thoughts about how to combat that perception because it's pretty widely held in a lot of quarters. Again, this isn't "man-bashing" - it is identifying a very prevalent social dynamic based on women's lived experiences. Too many men are entitled, demanding, narcissistic, petulant, and belligerent when they don't get their way and their ego stroked. This sort of childish behavior greatly informs my "adapt or go extinct" comment. Men continue to be the prime suspects in harming themselves, each other, women, children, and the planet - and then mostly refusing to take any responsibility for that all the while attacking anyone who dares to say they don't like it. No wonder most widows and divorcees don't want to get remarried, no wonder so many women are leaving the toxic world of dating. Young men, in particular, are shooting themselves in the foot, and I'd like to see that improve - for their sakes as well as everyone else's.
I know some really wonderful men. I love some really wonderful men, but they have for the most part evolved and extricated themselves from the Man Box because nobody benefits from living by somebody else's rules for Selfhood.
