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Writing Prompt For Men: What Does The World Tell You About Who You Should Be?
Guys get destructive, contradictory societal messaging too
A major component of patriarchal society is entrenched genderized boxes — this is what makes a real man and this is what a real woman is like. Messaging like this isn’t just restrictive, it’s very often contradictory, making it all the more destructive and maddening.
A new video clip has just been released about some of the absurd messaging that is directed at women, called Be a Lady They Said from Paul McLean on Vimeo. It spurred me to create a writing prompt so we could hear more about how this messaging has affected some of the women on Medium, but I also realize that men get told who and how they are supposed to be as well. Let’s hear your stories, guys.
Writing prompt: Tell us something about your own personal experience with messaging around how to be a man — the things that have frustrated you, hurt you, made you mad or spurred you on to be more of your own person. Tag me in the story so that I can read what you have to say and link your story here.
One of the main ways that we can begin to dismantle this kind of controlling binary messaging is to recognize it and call it out. As they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Don’t forget to tag me if you write something and…
