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Widdershins
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You know, you hear talk about comic book women being objectified & promoting poor body image... but I always felt that way about the comic book men too.
I've never really had muscle tone of that much assertiveness. Yet I see men portrayed so often as buff triangles, towering masses of super powerful muscle that're near impervious to anything but angst. There's so much pressure on men to be the fighters & defenders and supporters... when there's guys like me that get scared raising their hands or flinch at anything that moves too fast.
I can't throw punches or lift things. I'll never be some paragon champion for some ideal or huge collective of the public. Yet most media shows men as the go-getters and protagonists that the world revolves around. Like its the way I'm expected to act & be.
Heck, even when it comes to titillation, there's that undercurrent that ONLY women are to be admired and have the freedom to decorate themselves. Men only observe or show strength. Because men are only, at best, houses for ideals and at worst sweaty, stinking muscle.
I can't speak for others, but my experience men have never been talked of or shown in a positive light. I'm purely mental & emotional and when men are only ever treated like the Force that gets things done... it makes me feel like I'm abnormal... and worthless.
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Perhaps relevantly, I've heard that modern folks focus quite intensely on the passionate and physically powerful side of raw masculinity - that of the warrior king, so to speak. From ancient times, however, there has also been traditionally recognised the other side of that coin: the dispassionate and mentally powerful raw masculinity, that of the philosopher king. The issue is that both of the dual masculinities involve a sort of kingly power that can be very oppressive for those of us who simply lack that sort of bizarrely assertive dominance that a generalised societal handful of people expect males to strive for.
In fact, this is why some of the recent equality movements are starting to become concerning to me. Women are respected and role-modelled for gaining social dominance in the face of the patriarchy, but all that means is that they're being praised for becoming more traditionally masculine. It's a story as old as gender prejudice that feminine traits are to be avoided like the plague - only now even women are ditching it in favour of the socially favoured alternative. It's hardly as common for people to praise men who want to non-dominantly enjoy shiny baubles and be understanding and empathetic and affectionate and things like that, because that would be praising people for becoming more traditionally feminine, and clearly that's not a good thing. Dominance is the name of the game, and we're playing right into its hands.
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Perhaps it may well be from a Western Capitalist culture's collective opinion.
America seems so cold, self-concerned, anti-social, ambitious to the point of self-sacrifice. My Mother wasn't the only one who told me to mistrust everyone. It's all about competition, whether it be work, play or relationships.
Been pondering that America's going down the same cultural downslope Japan did when the population got too crowded & overworked to where the whole of the population was going down.
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It can be hard to waive away the thought of there being no place for me.
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