Why does the male gender role have generally less flexibility? Feminine men seem more mocked than masculine women, you can name a baby girl 'Max' but it's weird for a baby boy to be "Sarah", women being bi is basically a fun norm while 'bi guys' are stereotyped as gay. Why?
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This is a thing where I feel like there's got to be a great evolutionary theory for this but I don't know what it is. Is it male value is more centered around strength behaviors, while women value is more centered around reproduction (which is much more stable)?
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Because traditionally, the male role is seen as superior to the female one. If a woman wants to take on the male role you can at least respect her for giving it a try (futile as it may be), whereas for a man to take on the female role is just humiliating.
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This seems like a good theory. I think I have a mild hesitation around it but I'm not sure where it's coming from. I'll think about it more
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This makes me feel really curious about this dynamic in regards to trans women.
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Intrasexual competition and arms race is more fierce in the male populations across biological life. (I.e less room to step out)
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Depends on country. US masculinity has smaller range than French or Portugese masculinity for example.
Feminity is also narrower in some cultures.
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I think contemporary US culture here isn't a rational or traditional phenomena, more a side effect of rather recent marketing and propaganda campaigns. Perhaps a splash of workplace acculturation and schooling.
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We assume “it’s always been that way“, but I don’t think that’s true. As recently as a century ago, men were more permitted to show affection for one another, & there were names for men that are today feminized. Affection: artofmanliness.com/articles/bosom Names: parents.com/baby-names/ide
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Because for the most part masculinity is defined by what you don't do, not what you do.
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