Being a man...

[Digital Planets]

For humans to do it is nothing short of an abomination.

That's an awfully strong reaction to be wrong about a relatively obscure biological fact.

[Rabukurafoto]

How is it?
Please, NSGs, I'm not trying to troll, this thread is actually about your impressions, and it could be even your specifical issues, why not?

From my experience, being a man comes with a set of privileges as well as burdens - opportunities as well as restrictions. I feel that other posters have already done an apt job of describing some of those burdens and restrictions, at least in an American context (hats off to Gallo for his wonderful list); and as for the privileges and opportunities, I'm fairly confident that the reasonably intelligent folks among us already have a general idea of them by now.

So what I would like to add is this: all humans are oppressed to varying degrees by the societies in which we live, yes? When we view the world as a series of rigid and highly loaded dichotomies (male vs. female, etc.) - whether due to genuine essentialism or due to a kind of insistent, immutable structuralism - we perpetuate that oppression by reinforcing social roles which entail said privileges and burdens and so forth. Men should never be excluded from what should be a common human struggle against a broader system of gender-based privileges and burdens which really tries to put all of us into very small boxes. At least in the modern west, where such a system is enforced through culture and economic conditions more so than through legal inequalities, a meaningful liberation of women can only happen simultaneously with a liberation of men. When men lose their special privileges, women lose their special burdens; and when women lose their special privileges, men lose their special burdens. Men and women, then, ought to be natural allies in a struggle against an oppressive system of gender.

That's why I was delighted to see this OP. Not sure if it will actually help any men or women appreciate their common humanity and the conditions of their shared bondage... but a dude can hope.

I cannot state my opinion about this thing, due obiouvs reasons: not being a man, I cannot understand how is it.

I actually think that some of the best insight into what it means to be a man (again, in the context of modern America) comes from Susan Bordo, particularly in her book The Male Body. What she lacks in firsthand knowledge, she makes up for with a very thorough exploration of the cultural factors underpinning popular notions of masculinity.

This doesn't mean that some men don't primary enforce. It also doesn't mean that some women don't secondary enforce (a woman telling another woman not to "dress like a ho or she'll never find a good man" is acting as a proxy enforcer for a hypothetical man, for instance). But that data trend indicates that the primary enforcers of gender roles these days are women.

Interesting. Think you can point me toward that data? I haven't heard of such a thing before, so I'm not sure where to start looking.

[Marginal Territory]

I really really really don't like it.

[Kubra]

I quite like it. I wouldn't trade being a guy for anything in the world.

[Valrifell]

I quite like it. I wouldn't trade being a guy for anything in the world.

That's a bit extreme. I'm sure we'd all like to shed our mortal flesh-shell and ascend to the status of a formless Great One, anything else is just cowardice, plain and simple.

[Erythrean Thebes]

It's not any different. You act based on a combination of your thoughts and feelings, and you deal with others based on that and ultimately working with their opinion of and the ways they treat you. Same as women.

[Sane Outcasts]

I quite like it. I wouldn't trade being a guy for anything in the world.

That's a bit extreme. I'm sure we'd all like to shed our mortal flesh-shell and ascend to the status of a formless Great One, anything else is just cowardice, plain and simple.

I'm hoping to be uploaded as a digital ghost to the Internet OF THE FUTURE! or at the very least an immortal robot body. Something with six legs and a laser, nothing too flashy.

[Mann Co Heavy 1]

I don't have to deal with periods.

[Valrifell]

That's a bit extreme. I'm sure we'd all like to shed our mortal flesh-shell and ascend to the status of a formless Great One, anything else is just cowardice, plain and simple.

I'm hoping to be uploaded as a digital ghost to the Internet OF THE FUTURE! or at the very least an immortal robot body. Something with six legs and a laser, nothing too flashy.

Of course, you'd still be limited to a physical manifestation of a sort. If the servers go down, so do you.

Still better than a meat-sack, tho.

[Kubra]

I quite like it. I wouldn't trade being a guy for anything in the world.

That's a bit extreme. I'm sure we'd all like to shed our mortal flesh-shell and ascend to the status of a formless Great One, anything else is just cowardice, plain and simple.

sure, so long as it's a male formless great one

[Stellar Colonies]

Not being female, I wouldn't be able to say if it is objectively "better" or "worse" to be male.

But generally, I'd say my experience with being myself hasn't been bad.

[Valrifell]

That's a bit extreme. I'm sure we'd all like to shed our mortal flesh-shell and ascend to the status of a formless Great One, anything else is just cowardice, plain and simple.

sure, so long as it's a male formless great one

Gods don't have genders, it wouldn't really make sense for them to have genders.

[Internationalist Bastard]

It really is a thing we’re both deal with their own bullshit
Genders dumb

[Salus Maior]

Men can breastfeed.

I imagine that's a pretty small minority, though.

[Rainengrad]

Sorry for not reading anything but the first and last pages.

I find many of the expectations around being a male annoying. Here on a little rural town on a shithole country, men as a binary gender are expected to grow body hair, keep a buzzcut on their head at all times, have no geeky interests, play at least three different sports, get laid thrice a week and brag about it all the time, have a body like Arnold Schwarzenegger's on his first appearance as the Terminator, despise leftists, LGBTQ+ folk, HAVE NO FEELINGS WHATSOEVER and take whatever punishment life or other mortals throw at you ''like a man'' instead of crying or whining like you should (as neither of these attitudes are bad and you have the right of feeling like shit every once in a while for whatever reason, just like women). Typical Chad behaviour, to put it on first-world country terms.

However, i see people who live in cities have progressed much further than this. Lots of males in cities are actively taking socially progressive stances, defending things like the legalization of abortion along with women, asking for the separation of church and state, researching topics such as how to be less offensive on these times of turmoil, being much more honest and kind with themselves and others, having geeky interests like Western or Japanese animation, sci-fi and related without much trace of shame, maybe even crossdressing. Sure, there must be Chads there too, but at least they are not the only kinda guy around in there.

I have a little theory it has to do with free-range children and the fact that physical labour prevailed longer on this town than in cities, what with all the fields and houses in construction by people that do not ask for a certification. On towns like mine, that's still a thing. I was born in a city for enough time to know there's more to life than pursuing the perfect abs and calling women ''bitches'' for getting laid with the same number of people Chads do. Maybe, if i was actually born and raised in this place, i would find the Chad thing normal, even try to do the same shit. It could also depend on your parenting and your experiences. My parents were born and raised here, on even more ancient and conservative times, but their stay on the city might have had an effect on their views of what's really good and bad, as they are fairly off the scale of social conservatism, if we compare them to many of the locals. My parents in turn might have had an effect on me by telling me about Chad attitudes that are bad, and bothering to explain me why, not trying to install a doctrine on me, but to tell me the pros and cons of everything and letting me take my pick, letting me choose my own mindset of ''wrong/right''.

Edit: There are probably pros and cons to being a woman or to belong to a non-binary gender. These are just some of the cons of being a man, and nothing else.

[Salus Maior]

sure, so long as it's a male formless great one

Gods don't have genders, it wouldn't really make sense for them to have genders.

Why not?

Some gods clearly have sex and children according to pagans. And even then, Monotheism doesn't really have any objection to gods expressing themselves as a specific gender regardless of being above sex and all that.

[Ifreann]

Men can breastfeed.

I imagine that's a pretty small minority, though.

All men can breastfeed. Both men and women have the breast tissue that produces milk. Men usually don't have the right hormone levels to actually lactate.

[Northern Davincia]

I imagine that's a pretty small minority, though.

All men can breastfeed. Both men and women have the breast tissue that produces milk. Men usually don't have the right hormone levels to actually lactate.

The potential to do so and the actual ability are two different things.

[The Empire of Pretantia]

I imagine that's a pretty small minority, though.

All men can breastfeed. Both men and women have the breast tissue that produces milk. Men usually don't have the right hormone levels to actually lactate.

So a small minority can breastfeed.

[Ifreann]

All men can breastfeed. Both men and women have the breast tissue that produces milk. Men usually don't have the right hormone levels to actually lactate.

The potential to do so and the actual ability are two different things.

Men are able to breastfeed.

---

All men can breastfeed. Both men and women have the breast tissue that produces milk. Men usually don't have the right hormone levels to actually lactate.

So a small minority can breastfeed.

We all can. Only a small minority actually will lactate.

[Northern Davincia]

The potential to do so and the actual ability are two different things.

Men are able to breastfeed.

Under very specific circumstances, yes (which include a change in hormones).

[Ifreann]

Men are able to breastfeed.

Under very specific circumstances, yes.

Just like women.

[Northern Davincia]

Under very specific circumstances, yes.

Just like women.

And fortunately we leave the task solely to women, rather than a degenerate bunch.

[Ifreann]

Just like women.

And fortunately we leave the task solely to women, rather than a degenerate bunch.

[The Empire of Pretantia]

The potential to do so and the actual ability are two different things.

Men are able to breastfeed.

---

So a small minority can breastfeed.

We all can. Only a small minority actually will lactate.

Lactation is necessary for breastfeeding, so only a small minority can breastfeed.