Remaking Masculinity Isn’t About Dismantling Gender
But why do you want to be the culture’s dancing bear?
In current American culture (and many other patriarchal-based ones), masculinity isn’t a state of being, it’s a performance — a constant attempt at proving you deserve to be viewed as “a real man.” A large part of this takes place via demonstrating you are “not a girl” because in this sort of culture, males and females are envisioned as almost two different species, and being female is less. It’s weaker, not as intelligent, not as worthy of respect, not as tough — or so the narrative goes.
After all, without that perspective, how could men have justified keeping women as second-class citizens by law for so long — something that was true in the US until a mere 50 years ago? How else to justify the still common belief that men have the right to control women? I mean, who wears the pants here? Is it a dancing bear, acting out scripts of masculinity devised by other people?
Women and men are the same species and we’re a group of individuals with a constellation of traits, interests, and abilities that are really only constrained by what opportunities we have been allowed. We aren’t inherently different except as that has been cultivated by culture and the pervasive gender indoctrination we are all subject to from birth.
