Help me settle a bet plz
Dammit, and that’s the first time I used that analogy too. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help
I’m trying to understand though. Do you mean that being a man is kinda just vibes like the unclear qualities which make someone happy or unhappy with the sound of their voice? That to be a man is to be content with the idea of being seen as a man?
Because though I can’t speak from experience, I feel like I could equally easily accept being seen as a man or woman. Like if I grew up being told I was a man and that some men just happen to have my body parts and that I’m expected to be boyish/manly and take an interest in masculine things, I don’t think that would ever have made me uncomfortable. I’d have the same mix of traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine interests that I have now and probably have eventually settled on presenting my appearance basically the same way I do now. But I’d go by different pronouns.
That to be a man is to be content with the idea of being seen as a man?
I think that’s pretty spot on. Anything more specific is both culturally and personally contextual. I’ve said elsewhere in the thread that, as an AMAB person, I got a lot out of reading the writings of trans men. Just put my conception of masculinity into perspective.
I also personally wasted a lot of time early on in my gender exploration intellectualizing the concept of gender. Some of it was useful. A lot of it wasn’t. Gender exploration is both easiest and hardest when you’re just trying stuff out.
Ok but then my mind still loops back around to the question, what is a man? I guess me. By this logic I’m a man. Because I don’t feel like I would have any discomfort being seen as a man.
But if that is true, then I don’t think men are real. If I’m a man then man is a meaningless concept.
