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Mike Gerle's avatar

If the left wants men to vote for us (I've always voted blue), calling my masculinity toxic, and my leadership (patriarchy) evil, don't be surprised when men leave the party.

Men want to feel good about themselves too and that's currently impossible on Left.

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Dave Madden's avatar

I agree that men want to feel good about themselves as much as anyone. But if a man's masculinity he practices is toxic, or the only form of leadership he can imagine is patriarchal, those are both doing real damage to people, and I'm going to call it out.

And one counter to your claim about the feel-bad narrative re men on the Left is all the 'Big Dad Energy' that got attached to Tim Walz. Patriarchal? Probably, but for sure a far less damaging conception of masculinity than we traditionally see among political leaders.

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Dave Madden's avatar

Also, the kind of masculinity I'm envisioning involves letting myself read one fellow man's thinking about his gender without feeling as though my individual gender-identity choices are being attacked. That's the kind of male fragility that patriarchy keeps trying to see as 'being assertive'.

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Beth Sullivan's avatar

The Wikipedia footnote really hit me in the gut. Dude.

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Dave Madden's avatar

It's true also for its Vagina page FWIW.

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