(no subject)

[musicpsych.livejournal.com]

I posted these questions in my own journal, and I thought I'd post them here, too.

How do you define masculinity? Like, not a dictionary definition, but your own personal definition? If you are male, how does this apply to your own life? Is it something you actively think about, or is it something that just "is" and you only think about it when prompted? Do you believe in the whole "alpha male" thing as applied to humans, or is that just a label people apply in certain situations?

Comments

Masculinity

[comingtolife.livejournal.com]

Masculinity is an ability to take own decisions and implement them. Man (ideal one) is a human strong in everything. Actually this is what I lack, as well as most of us, men. I am a man, and what gets me down is constatnt thoughts about sex and continuous desire. Sometimes it really excessive) Do you feel the same? You really need to be strong (physically and mentally) if you are a man!

Re: Masculinity

[musicpsych.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Thanks for the response. I guess I'm not really sure how I feel about this. It seems like even the most masculine men have their weaknesses. Though maybe that's why it would be an ideal...

[x-windansea-x.livejournal.com]

Masculinity is, of course, very important to men. But I think there's an online trend of "promoting" or at least "studying" masculinity and I think the trend, its practitioners and many things associated with it are pathetic and effeminate.

I won't say anything new about masculinity - a desire for dominance; persistence; pride; maybe wisdom. But I try to imagine great men from history and I cannot, AT ALL, imagine them worrying about masculinity as such. I'm reading a book about Hassan ibn-Sabbah right now (master of fortress Alamut and founder of the Ismaili Assassin sect) and I cannot picture him thinking about masculinity.

Nor can I picture even his novices, who are described as just young men undergoing military and diplomatic training, as worrying about this. They act (and I believe, think) like normal men act (and think) around one another.

I was, however, thinking about STATUS - now, status is probably more important. I had this discussion yesterday: what if you have healthy self-esteem and you are in order but your social and sex lives are not in order. You seem normal, decently risky, etc, but -- people aren't thrilled about you. Now, sure, you can treat it with indifference (which I guess would be masculine) but then at the end of the day you'd still be by yourself as opposed to partying with fun, sexy people. I haven't thought of an answer to this yet.