On Masculinity
How I Became More Masculine On The Left
By AtticaFox

I like Bara. I like big buff masculine sweaty and even somewhat smelly dudes (ok, really smelly), who flex, run around, have bellies, and dont always wear a shirt. ‘So what the hell am I doing on the left’ a nazi would think. Surely I should have tossed my hat in with the strong square jawed well kept 'real men' of the Master Race, not the crying pit of loser degeneracy of the Left! What is this dude who likes masculine guys doing with a bunch of twinks and trans people’? I wish I could watch them faint when they read the following words: joining the Left has made me MORE masculine!

Yes, since joining the left I have dived head on into exploring my masculinity and I never would have without joining the left. 2 or 3 years ago, before the Nazis fully played their hand, and had the internet whipped up in a frenzy over "SJWs' I believed them. I didn’t know they were nazis at the time but I bought the line that there were these people running around screaming at everyone over how offended they were because the saw something that they didn't like. That these were all weak and fragile crybabies who couldn't handle real life. Most of all I believed that in order for me to not be weak, but strong, and a man, and not a purple haired fruitcake, that I had to be the comprehensive opposite of what an 'sjw' was.

All this ever did was put me in a box. It constricted me to a world devoid of experiment or softness. It only ever allowed me to define masculinity by what it was -not-. So it never became anything. I just never developed myself and found that I was just ignored this potential asset of my life. Worse I put all previous experiments back in a box. I used to wear bright paisley shirts and colorful pants but now I was constantly getting the message it was wrong to express myself. "Wow I'm ____, ____ is embarrassing and crazy. I have to be Masculine”. ‘White and afraid of everything’ is basically what masculinity was forced to be. Fragile and scared of the world, a world in which I was only ever allowed to interact with in the negative and with anger. And this is the box that every single 'real man' is still trapped in.

You know what got me out? Becoming a Socialist.

My leftward turn severed the connection between what I was and what everyone else is doing. It disconnected the idea of masculinity from being merely the opposite of femininity. So I turned inward I realized I could still like my big buff sweaty smelly guys and at the same time be friends with trans women, acknowledge they are women, care deeply about social issues, ad and most importantly think being fruity looks cool and kickass without having to be that way myself. I've since been dressing more comfortably yet stylish, working out and indulging in that primal "rawness" it makes me feel, all while having a scented candle burning in the room. None of it feels like I’m betraying my masculinity. I can move in and out of that box effortlessly. I can be a big raw man when I want and a little feminine when I want. I control my masculinity, not the other way around. And you know what? There are probably others like who I was even on the Left who have not found their way out of this box yet. Who may even carry some guilt for indulging in areas of culture that the nazis like to arbitrarily claim is theirs... I want to continue exploring to prove that this box should never exist for anyone. That a political stance is not to be predicated upon social control of masculinity and femininity. These are only prisons we build for ourselves.