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I really like this question because the responses seem to converge on two plausible explanations that have completely different feels: 1. Women = valuable (thus more expressive freedom), men = disposable (less expressive freedom) 2. Society generally values masculine traits more

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

Oct 30, 2019

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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I agree with your first observation (as a guy with a bigger feminine side than most) but Max can be short for Maxine, while there is no male-centric version of Sarah.

Aella

@Aella_Girl

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@linuxlovah

okay, so new Star Trek's main female character "Michael" then

8:11 PM · Oct 30, 2019

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I agree it's generally easier for women to break SOME gender norms than men. Women in men's clothing for instance. Unfortunately, women as aggressive, even confident, as men, are often held back or even feared.

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Like I've mentioned before, I track advertisements as a pulse of where society's at - and aggressive, confident women are mega super "In" right now in ads.

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and

The story says that male Michael is strange. I assumed there was mention of a half-sibling to Spock named Michael in one of the old series, with gender unspecified except by the name.