“Like the Victorians, who were obsessed with codifying male virtue, today’s gatekeepers seem determined to critique and reboot masculinity. The goal seems to be less understanding than containment. In any case, men have a long track record of ditching programs intended to civilize them.”
Maybe you said this but it reminds me of temperance. There’s a fear always among my friends of the creepy male, the one who just comes up and starts talking to them like a normal person.
Women do indeed want to control men and maleness while also finding it sexually repulsive. It’s quite the bind.
Yep, there is a link to the temperance, a reform movement led mainly by middle class women that was often focused on controlling the bad behavior of working class men. These men were said to be unable to control themselves if they had the demon drink (their brutishness would be unleashed!). Social reform isn't bad, but in the hands of its affluent proponents it routinely becomes absorbed with manners and politesse, as opposed to more unsettling, hierarchy-rattling change. Of course these movements will reflect the class and gender perspectives of their leaders--and they tend to push norms and trigger backlash in cycles.
“Like the Victorians, who were obsessed with codifying male virtue, today’s gatekeepers seem determined to critique and reboot masculinity. The goal seems to be less understanding than containment. In any case, men have a long track record of ditching programs intended to civilize them.”
Maybe you said this but it reminds me of temperance. There’s a fear always among my friends of the creepy male, the one who just comes up and starts talking to them like a normal person.
Women do indeed want to control men and maleness while also finding it sexually repulsive. It’s quite the bind.
Yep, there is a link to the temperance, a reform movement led mainly by middle class women that was often focused on controlling the bad behavior of working class men. These men were said to be unable to control themselves if they had the demon drink (their brutishness would be unleashed!). Social reform isn't bad, but in the hands of its affluent proponents it routinely becomes absorbed with manners and politesse, as opposed to more unsettling, hierarchy-rattling change. Of course these movements will reflect the class and gender perspectives of their leaders--and they tend to push norms and trigger backlash in cycles.