this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2025
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menby

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A space for masculine folks to talk about living under patriarchy.

Detoxing masculinity since 1990!

You don’t get points for feminism, feminism is expected.

Guidelines:

  1. Questions over blame
  2. Humility over pride
  3. Wisdom over dogma
  4. Actions over image

Rules (expansions on the guidelines):

  1. Mistakes should be learning experiences when possible.
    • Do not attack comrades displaying vulnerability for what they acknowledge are mistakes.
    • If you see good-faith behavior that's toxic, do your best to explain why it's toxic.
    • If you don't have the energy to engage, report and move on.
    • This includes past mistakes. If you've overcome extreme reactionary behavior, we'd love to know how.
    • A widened range of acceptable discussion means a greater need for sensitivity and patience for your comrades.
    • Examples:
      • "This is reactionary. Here's why."
      • "I know that {reality}, but I feel like {toxicity}"
      • "I don't understand why this is reactionary, but it feels like it {spoilered details}"
  2. You are not entitled to the emotional labor of others.
    • Constantly info-dumping and letting us sort through your psyche is not healthy for any of us.
    • If you feel a criticism of you is unfair, do not lash out.
    • If you can't engage self-critically, delete your post.
    • If you don't know how to phrase why it's unfair, say so.
  3. No singular masculine ideal.
    • This includes promoting gender-neutral traits like "courage" or "integrity" as "manly".
    • Suggestions for an individual to replace a toxic ideal is fine.
    • Don't reinforce the idea the fulfillment requires masculinity.
    • This also includes tendency struggle-sessions.
  4. No lifestyle content.
    • Post the picture of your new grill in !food (feminine people like grills too smh my head).
    • Post the picture of the fish you caught in !sports (feminine people like fish too smdh my damn head).
    • At best, stuff like this is off-topic. At worst, it's reinforcing genders norms..
    • If you're not trying to be seen as masculine for your lifestyle content, it's irrelevant to this comm. If you are trying to be seen as masculine, let's have a discussion about why these things are seen as masculine.

Resources:

*The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by Bell Hooks

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Hello comrades, it's time for our FINAL discussion thread for The Will to Change, covering Chapters 10 (Reclaiming Male Integrity), 11 (Loving Men) and the book as a whole. Thanks to everyone who's participated over the last couple months, I’m looking forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts again. And if you haven't started the book yet but would like to, this thread will stay pinned for a while so you can share your thoughts as you read!

As we reflect on the book as a whole, there are a few questions I'm curious to hear everyone's answers for:

  1. What was your biggest takeaway from reading The Will to Change?

  2. How has the book's material and hooks' insights affected your everyday life?

  3. How can we apply hooks' lessons on healthy, non-patriarchal masculinity to improve the site culture of Hexbear?

If you haven't read the book yet but would like to, its available free on the Internet Archive in text form, as well as an audiobook on Youtube with content warnings at the start of each chapter, courtesy of the Anarchist Audio Library, and as an audiobook on our very own TankieTube! (note: the YT version is missing the Preface but the Tankietube version has it)

After this I would like to host another book club, probably here on /c/menby but it depends on what exactly we read. Please share any suggestions you have for books below!

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

An upward swing in tone for the last chapters.

Chapter 10, with its discussions on workaholism, the internal lies supporting patriarchal views of men and masculinity within us, and how we can't be "whole" without rejecting it, is very healing in a way. It's a diagnosis and a cure all in one. As a pan dude, the bit on queer men being especially targeted is something I can personally attest to. As a kid, I was always berated for "acting gay" (something I am sure others here can certainly attest to), and that continues to today. This always struck me as especially odd ever since I was a kid, because what was wrong with acting how I was? Was there something wrong with my "true self?" I would mask and hide, and this led to an utter lack of confidence growing up.

Chapter 11, understandably, was a nice bow on top. It's a celebration of "the good men" and a model to follow, to will to change into. Really, this was a great positive note to leave off on. The discussions of passionate love vs the drive for casual sex was interesting to me as well, and kind of reminds me of Kollontai's writings on"Winged Eros," as opposed to "Wingless Eros." A really warming chapter overall, after showing just how patriarchy constrains and constricts everyone, men and women alike, Chapter 11 shows us what we can live like and how we can act, and paints it in a beautiful way.

Overall, really enjoyed reading this, and can't wait for the next one! Hopefully I will get better at discussing by then, haha.

Thanks for leading this, @[email protected] !