So, back when I was “still cis tho”, there were a lot of aspects of male gender norms that bothered me deeply and of course I totally understand why now. Even though these days I obviously have a clear reason for feeling that way, I’m still curious if cishet men also have issues with how norms or expectations around gender and sexuality impact them in a negative way.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on how those norms impact you, whether good or bad.
Also, I should mention that since this is a bit of a sensitive subject we’re talking about here, please be thoughtful and sensitive when discussing with others in this thread. Thanks! <3
EDIT: Much thanks for all the great responses here! I know it’s a difficult topic of course, so I appreciate you sharing your thoughts/feelings like this.
Speaking of which… I just looked at /c/menby and some of the posts on the front page there are over 2 years old. I see a lot of the discussion here centered around not being able to share feelings and/or not having the spaces or support to do that in. /c/menby seems like the perfect place for that, just sayin’.
I think I’m emotionally underdeveloped because of male gender norms. Specificly the norm that men are not emotional. It feels like my non-male friends run laps around me when it comes to navigating their/others emotions.
The harm of this deficiency it no doubt obvious to most. But it took me a long time to even recognize that it was a problem. The harm I’ve experienced from this is the damage I’ve done to my relationships throughout my life.
Caveat - I’m not sure how much responsibility societal pressures bear alone since my parents were not great emotional models.
Other then that, I think I’ve only benefited from gender norms.
This is my general experience as well.