Awww, why are men such cold dicks to her jeez!

* chefs kiss * The 'supportive' guy who reinforces that the only way for a woman to be strong is to adopt the behaviours of 'traditional masculinity', while not realising it's a garbage take made only to make people not have to care about/look after the mental health of others regardless of gender by encouraging them to hide their problems publicly and thus emotionally isolate themselves under the guise of being 'strong'. I was wondering if/when that archetype would make an appearance.

Well spotted :3

Eh, I try not to use the term "traditional masculinity," because it's been bastardized so badly by modern society. People who claim "traditional masculinity" is a bad thing don't understand what it really is.

Masculinity is compassion.
Masculinity is strength.
Masculinity is steadfastness.
Masculinity is courage.
Masculinity is generosity.
Masculinity is kindness.
Masculinity is rationality.

Just because one is masculine doesn't necessarily mean he is exuding masculinity.

I put it in quotes the way I did because I don't think it's a valid/useful definition at all. None of the behaviours you described are related to gender or any sort of performative expression of gendered action. They're just positive traits that any person can embody, or not embody, without any relationship to their gender identity. To incorrectly associate them with any gender, even as a supposedly positive ideal, distorts people's view of society by suggesting that their behaviours should align with their gender identity, and can lead to discrimination against those who, for whatever reason, embody positive or negative traits traditionally (and wrongly) associated with a gender identity they or others may not feel reflects them.

I don't want a man to be compassionate, strong and steadfast. I don't want a woman to be compassionate, strong and steadfast. I don't want a non-binary person like myself to be compassionate, strong and steadfast. I just want a person to be those things, without any consideration for their gender. :)

No, you misunderstand me. I'm not saying those things are masculinity. I'm saying masculinity is those things. A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square.

I may have misunderstood, but I still don't feel like I agree with the statement as you intended it. I just don't feel as though tying any personality traits and their value to any sort of gender identity or aspect of gender identity (masculine/feminine in this case) is valuable or beneficial to people as a whole. If someone wants to value compassion, strength, courage, whatever, that doesn't hold any correlation to whether or not they're masculine, nor does being masculine mean a 'masculine' person is automatically any of those things. You say masculinity is 'x' and 'y', but putting any gender related stuff to any sort of personality trait, positive or negative, is just arbitrary assignments based on unnecessary societal stereotypes, in my interpretation.

I'm not saying I'm definitively right of course, there's all sorts of philosophy and sociology and individual cultural contexts to consider in individual circumstances. But from my (non-binary, "oh god please free me from the hellscape of any and all gendered assumptions") point of view, definitions of masculinity or femininity aren't things which do or should hold any weight or value.

"I'm a complete supporter, so I know I don't have to support you at all!" I wish people like this didn't exist. For one, anyone that has to go out of their way to state they're a supporter of something... probably isn't. Bro's doing it the right way. Say you're supporting by actually being there and supporting, not stating it like the opening to a thesis. Words have weight, but actions carry mountains.

Glad to see you lovely readers are so wise <3 Always a pleasure reading your comments, all of you.

If she was playing Bad Date Bingo she'd clearly have won long ago.

Yyyyep

You're kind 💙 Thank you! 🤗

How is Ryder managing to find so many awful guys to date and not a single good one? (Either that, or you're showing only the bad ones.) I would say I'm curious about how Felix's dates go, because I suspect the women he finds would be pretty low-quality like Ryder's guys, but we all know Felix isn't seeking out any dates...at least, not in the traditional way. XD