#Masculinity

[genderqueerdykes]

the point of my masculinity and male positivity posts are to underline that masculinity and manhood are seen as a threat or in direct opposition to queerness, and that often times in order to be seen as queer you have to be partially or wholly feminine or gender neutral, or express your manhood in a feminine or gender neutral way in order to no longer be threatening, invasive, or a problem.

it is very difficult to exist in queer spaces as a hyper masculine person & a man. you're made to feel like you need to walk a tight rope feeling like you're inherently out of place, as if you existing and being masculine or a man in queer spaces makes others uncomfortable inherently.. just know that when i make positivity posts it is to remind us all that masculinity/manhood and queerness are not opposites and that you do not have to be a feminine man or masc person to be viewed/seen/heard as queer.

chasing men, masculine people, and masculinity out of queer spaces isn't helping anyone currently and won't help anyone down the line. please accept masc enbies, butches, bears, and masculine trans men with the same kindness, love, and passion that you do neutral and feminine people. that's the point when i make these kinds of posts. thank u

[fluidnet]

I was half asleep and thinking about all the stories like She’s The Man and Mulan (1999) where a woman dresses up like a man in order to do something ManlyTM and how they all inevitably fall in love with the masculinity of it all while still being women (or not, I guess, fiction is flexible and gender is more so)

and I went “give me a man who chooses to dress as a woman instead of resorting to violence. Give me a man who, in finding femininity and softness, can find himself. Give me a man who chooses kindness and love over war and aggression, but the only way he can do so is finding solace in the feminine. Not because femininity is inherently softer, but because society has told him as such. Give me a man who, through trial and error, finds himself learning to love the traditional women’s tasks he’s been clumsily attempting. Give me a man who could never truly fit in with other men, and the women around him protect him and love him unconditionally. Give me a man who cannot stand for himself at first, and then rises stronger together with the people who took him in”

And I realized that “give me a man who dresses as a woman in order to avoid going to war” is just. Achilles. And I want that classically animated movie now. I don’t even care if it’s sanitized like the Disney Renaissance Mulan or Hercules, in fact I’d enjoy that. I want Achilles to choose kindness and love and beauty over the war he never wanted to fight. I want a lighthearted, playful version of Achilles where there’s a happy ending. I know it’s a tragedy, but so were a lot of things that got animated at the time (not even Disney, Anastasia and Quest for Camelot come to mind as well) and I think he and Patroclus can have a happily ever after, too

I also want it to be gay, but I think that goes without saying

[boreal-sea]

Playing off a post I just saw:

"I thought I saw a beautiful butch lesbian but it was just a man"

(which was followed by a super valid statement of "sometimes beautiful butch lesbians are also men and deserve love)

But I wanna go a step further.

Why'd he stop being beautiful? You, aesthetically, saw beauty in his masculinity before you knew his gender or his birth sex. Why do you think he's no longer beautiful just because he's (potentially) got a dick?

Unpack that.

Because he is beautiful. Masculinity is beautiful, even when it's on men.

[support-ponies]

Would you do Big Mac saying something reassuring about being comfortable in masculinity even without always presenting fully masculine?

Being masculine doesn’t have to fit into one specific look or behavior. You don’t have to act tough all the time, have a deep voice, or look a certain way to be valid in your masculinity. Everyone expresses themselves differently, and that’s okay. What truly matters is being true to who you are. 💖

~ Mod Faeling

[bodybuildersshaveyourheads]

[trans-wannabe-femme]

preface to this post: i use the terms '"manhood"' and '"womanhood"' in, think, a kind of nonstandard way here that I am still working on defining

idk if this makes sense and I would love to hear from other trans folks but I feel like "womanhood" is a thing that is difficult to lose but also difficult to gain and that "manhood" is (comparatively) less difficult to lose but also less difficult to gain

Am I making sense? I would especially like to hear from transmasc folks about their experience of this.

[moonlightsapphic]

I learned a lot today from Obviously Queer’s video essay “FEMME: Lesbian History, Identity, Politics and Invisibility” and femmebis’ “The “Lesbian-Only Term” Myth: A Comprehensive Historical Essay on ‘Butch’ and ‘Femme’ ”.

[queermasculine]

Two butches playing pool, from Sophia Wallace's "Girls will be Bois" series, 2002–2007.

[genderqueerdykes]

happy pride to every male & masc queer who feels alienated from the community during pride month. many places are taking to create "she+" and "femme & them" type events that conflate non binary identities with womanhood without creating similar spaces and events for mascs & men, leaving many trans men and mascs to feel totally alienated because their is no designated day or space for them to celebrate. while it's great to celebrate femininity & womanhood, we should be celebrating queer manhood and masculinity alongside it. it's important to have groups and events for all members of our community

if you feel alienated because you don't fit into these spaces, happy pride to you. happy pride to the butches and lesboys who don't feel safe going to lesbian events because of this. happy pride to trans mascs & men who don't have a space to go or a day to celebrate themselves. happy pride to non binary queers, genderqueer people and gnc people who are not feminine or female and have nowhere to go. happy pride to masculine and male intersex people who can't exist in the spaces they want to.

happy pride to cis masc and male queers who feel completely estranged from the community. happy pride to trans girls who are also men who cannot express their manhood at the risk of people using it as a weapon to misgender you. happy pride to the bigender and multigender people who are have to prioritize their feminine or female identities in order to make other people "feel safe." happy pride to the genderfluid people who don't get to talk about their masculinity or manhood. happy pride to the masc gays who feel alienated

we deserve to celebrate ourselves as well. take care of yourself this pride month

[genderkoolaid]

The young men in our study were between the ages of 14 and 17 from families with low incomes and lived in high-crime neighborhoods. They were split into three groups. The first group received money on reloadable gift cards every week. The second group was offered an after-school program and received money on a gift card as long as they attended the first few sessions. The third group served as a comparison or “control,” and participants were able to take advantage of the programming after the completion of the study. When asked about how they spent the money they had received, participants reported a variety of expenses. Some spent it on personal items and entertainment like clothes, video games, and activities such as amusement parks. Others reported using the money for necessities, such as helping out a parent with groceries or fixing a car. Some participants reported that they saved the money to reach goals such as purchasing a car or helping their family move out of their neighborhood and purchase a house. Receiving the cash transfer alone led to an increase in healthy behaviors. Participants who received the cash transfer were less likely than the control group to do things like drink alcohol, use marijuana, take prescription medication without a prescription, be in a physical fight, carry a weapon, or use a vapor product. Some participants said they felt the extra money helped them to perform better in school by allowing them to buy supplies, and others felt that the cash alone helped reduce crime. We also found that the cash transfer plus programming improved the financial health of participants, which may be because the after-school programming included financial education. Beyond the benefits of the cash, the young men who were offered and attended the after-school program noted that having a safe, neutral space to go after school helped them stay away from the violence in their neighborhoods.

[actualalivecreature]

not femininity or masculinity but a secret third thing (faggotry)

[archer-vale]

Natural body armor.

[nestito702]

[shamebats]

Independent journalist Vera Papisova talks about her experiences dating right-wing men for a magazine feature.

[loveless-arobee]

Anyway, masculine men with boobs are awesome.

Masculine men who like their boobs are awesome.

Masculine men who are neutral about their boobs are awesome.

Masculine men who dislike and/or experience dysphoria about their boobs but can't bind or get surgery or simply don't want to (no matter the reasons!) are awesome.

Masculine men who want boobs or bigger boobs are awesome.

Having boobs doesn't make us any less of men nor any less masculine. Boobs aren't inherently feminine – no body part is inherently gendered.