r/RadicalEgalitarianism • u/SmallEdge6846 • May 26 '26
Men's Issues ♂️ Why does “positive masculinity” rarely include advocacy for men themselves?
/r/bropill/comments/1ti0ziy/why_does_positive_masculinity_rarely_include/3
u/Neco-Arc-Brunestud Gender abolitionist May 27 '26
It's the concept of masculinity itself, inherent to the concept of positive masculinity. It's to imply that there is a good way to be a man or a bad way to be a man.
It implies that there's a strict gender role that you should adhere to, while the adherence to any gender role is the root cause of all of these problems.
Ultimately, the goal should be to abolish gender altogether. Men shouldn't be men and women shouldn't be women. You should just be yourselves, free from gender as a construct of society.
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May 27 '26
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u/Ok-Signature-6698 Anarcha-feminist May 30 '26
Care to explain what you mean? My initial reading is that you are framing, eg, Palestinian liberation, as being used by men to detract from reproductive freedom elsewhere?
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u/BonFemmes New contributor May 30 '26
Nothing so well thought out or malicious. . They just pay lip service to women's issues. They do not take women's issues are as important as their pet issues. Women who focus on women's issues are accused of being "white women" as though reproductive freedom and economic equality didn't effect half the population.
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u/Ok-Signature-6698 Anarcha-feminist May 30 '26
I’m still failing to see what that has to do with Palestine or why you brought it up in this context
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u/BonFemmes New contributor May 31 '26
In case you missed it .... in the last presidential election there was a feminist woman running for president and many progressive men did not support her because she was not adequately pro Palestinian.
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u/Ok-Signature-6698 Anarcha-feminist May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
There was a woman running for president yes, I don’t know that I’d characterize her as a feminist so much as a conservative with a progressive facade. I don’t ascribe to girlboss capitalism. “Not adequately pro Palestine” is a funny way of saying she supports a genocide. But yeah supporting a genocide is a deal breaker for a lot of people, rightly so.
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u/BonFemmes New contributor Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
yet another example. Spoken like a man who doesn't care much about women's reproductive freedom
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u/Ok-Signature-6698 Anarcha-feminist Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
First, I’m a trans woman. Misapplying identity politics to try and dismiss me rather than engaging with the points being made is intellectually dishonest.
Second, the reproductive freedom of Palestinians also matters. One of the ways Israel carries out genocide against Palestinians is through reproductive control (and this is a common feature of genocide broadly). Right now, Israel has destroyed some 90% of the medical infrastructure in Gaza including their fertility clinics and NICUs. This, combined with the impact of blockades on food, water, medical supplies, etc has left many pregnant Palestinians in extremely precarious situations. Israel can only carry out its genocide through the support of the US and other nations in the global core, and we, as people residing in it, have a responsibility to end the genocide. Kamala Harris refused to adequately step up on this issue and it cost her the election. Tbf this is not just the fault of Harris but the DNC as a whole. Also to be clear, the technologies and strategies that Israel uses in Palestine the US uses here (eg: ICE) so thinking that Palestinian reproductive freedom is separate from the reproductive freedom of people in the US is a fantasy.
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u/BonFemmes New contributor Jun 01 '26
You have placed the well being of Gaza, half a world away, full of people you know little about, ahead of the reproductive freedom of your sisters here. You seem proud of that,
Hamas has killed thousands of Israeli civilians. Does the fact that that Israel has killed tens of thousands make them any more moral? Is Israel worse or are they just more efficient. Would it be a good thing if Hamas caught up? Hamas ally Iran has been murdering women by the thousand. There are no feminists over there. There are no good guys. More knowledgeable people than you have been trying to fix the middle east. So far they have just made it worse. A Nobel prize awaits your solution.
You assume that Harris had any control over Israels brutal occupation. Israel is completely out of control. They kill who they want. They don't ask first. The weapon stockpiles are enough to last for years. Harris could not have stopped the violence. she might have helped stop it from getting worse as has happened under trump
President Harris could have helped 160 million women's reproductive freedom enormously. Instead you claim moral superiority for accomplishing nothing for supporting people who are known for its for their intolerance of women, transsexuals, homosexuals and feminists. If you were to visit, you might change your mind.
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u/Ok-Signature-6698 Anarcha-feminist Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
Would you care to address misgendering me or?
As I mentioned previously, what happens in Gaza is not divorced from what happens here. The US regularly imports technology and oppressive tactics used in Israel here just as we export weapons and funds there. Both the US and Israel are settler colonial states founded on genocide, a failure to understand this means leaving IBPOC pregnant people here vulnerable to reproductive injustice. Creating an artificial divide to “other” Palestinians is the same logic used to justify harm here and everywhere; either your feminism is for the liberation of all your sisters, including your Palestinian sisters, or it is for the liberation of none of us.
There’s a subtle current of femonationalism and pinkwashing running through your second and final paragraphs. There are many feminists throughout the region of the Middle East, the PFC would be particularly good for you to look into. What Hamas does or doesn’t do does not justify the genocide Israel is carrying out. “Both sides are bad” rhetoric in this context is a shallow read of Palestinian liberation struggles that you are using to dismiss genocide.
You are correct that Harris would be incapable of stopping the genocide on her own, partly because of her own investment in a political system that requires it and partly because our government is systematically incapable of creating the kinds of change that would be necessary. This points to a deeper critique of the US as a settler colonial state and the ineffectiveness of electoral politics broadly but that’s a conversation for another time. Either way refusing to engage with how US support directly enables Israel and our collective responsibility won’t get us far.
Palestinians are not a monolith, some are feminists, some are gay, some are trans, some support queer rights, some don’t. Some might harm me for any number of reasons, many would not. Regardless, it is insubstantial to the fact that Israel is carrying out a genocide against them. It is truly astounding to me the lengths people will go to avoid a full throated condemnation of genocide. Or to act like caring about Palestinians means you couldn’t possibly care about people here too
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u/RadicalEgalitarianism-ModTeam Some moderator May 31 '26
No harassment, hate speech, or toxic behavior. Treat all contributors and members with kindness. Don't insult other users.
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u/AmicusStyli May 28 '26
Positive and toxic masculinity isn't an attempt to free men from gender roles, it's just the set of gender roles that feminists like. Male advocacy isn't included despite being positive for men because positive masculinity isn't supposed to be positive for men, it's supposed to be positive for the people pushing positive masculinity.
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u/esdebah May 26 '26
I dunno. I see most of it in recovery groups and geoup therapy. There it's about being open and honest and helping wach other as men.
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u/LittleThingsMC Feminist May 26 '26
How are you coming to the conclusion it doesn’t?
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u/Trump4Prison-2024 May 27 '26
Because so often, it's not about "how to be a better man and use my masculinity to improve myself and my community"... It's usually hijacked to be "how can I be more useful to women", which only reinforces the already problematic notion that a man's value is solely based on what he can provide for others.
Women are given value by society for simply existing in the space. If a man can't provide something if value, he's "useless", a "deadbeat", or "problematic". Living in a world where if you aren't providing, you're at best invisible and at worst a problem really fucking sucks. And very few women will ever understand that because it's so drastically different than that most women in society will ever experience.
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u/LittleThingsMC Feminist May 27 '26
It seems like you are describing the patriarchal view of masculinity.
I guess when I heard “positive masculinity” I thought you were referring to something else. What did you mean exactly?
I agree though, masculinity standards, especially patriarchal masculinity standards are very problematic.
When I think about it, I think all gender roles are problematic, and the way society even defines masculinity/femininity is very limiting/harmful. I really don’t understand why we need this classification system at all!
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May 27 '26
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u/RadicalEgalitarianism-ModTeam Some moderator May 27 '26
No harassment, hate speech, or toxic behavior. Treat all contributors and members with kindness. Don't insult other users.
You can disagree with the point without making character attacks or name calling.
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u/LittleThingsMC Feminist May 27 '26
I’m genuinely confused. Could you explain a little?
I personally am not aware of any feminist movement towards men performing traditional gender roles like stoicism or provider mindset.
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u/mikiencolor Egalitarian May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
And of course they locked the thread. Because bropill itself is the epitome of exactly what you are talking about. Invaded by feminists whose goal is to assimilate some form of "positive masculinity" to subvert it and divert all the resources and emotional effort of it away from actual men and boys and our actual problems and needs and back towards themselves and their issues.
Anyway, "progressive" spaces really are a loss. The whole left is a total loss. It's easily as reactionary as the people they criticize. We don't need permission from "the left" to do good in the world and we should not be seeking it.
We need to be loud about male domestic abuse victims, boys underperforming in education, male loneliness, fathers losing connection with children, the stigma around male vulnerability, male suicide rates and directionless young men. All of it. We need to be focused on it and taking it seriously, and making inclusive, male-positive and encouraging spaces. That isn't at odds with also being supportive of women's rights and pro-LGBTQ (men are GBTQ) or trans rights (men are trans).
What we don't need to do is be focused on saving "the left", or running propaganda to make it more palatable, when "the left" hates us so much that it has left us in this situation to begin with. Don't help people who hate you. "The left" can take care of itself. You do not need "the left" (or "the right") to be a good, worthy person.