Mapping N-Dimensional Gender Space: Crafting a Healthy Masculinity, part ???

Despite the fact that I’m listing off individuals, what I’m really pointing to are specific images of people crystallized in popular culture. Marcus Aurelius was not always the Marcus Aurelius that is remembered by history and popular imaginings. The historical figures, considered this way, are no more real than the most crudely drawn stock character: real people are complex and contain multitudes. Characters – even the most three-dimensional, deep characters – are often the opposite.

Testosterone is a Hell of a Drug: Masculinity and Authoritarianism

There is, however, one generally acknowledged trait of masculinity: there is an inherent connection between masculinity and authority. While it isn’t impossible for a feminine individual to wield authority, in the eyes of most (or the big other), this happens in spite of that person’s femininity, not because of it. With a masculine leader, it’s commonly seen as more congruent.

Exiting the Manosphere: the Male Hierarchy is Not a Thing (Odd Columns #9 , AND Healthy Masculinity #5)

There is a concept out there that all of society is predicated upon a socio-sexual hierarchy, and that we all have a place in it. This is a cancerous outgrowth of work done on captive gray wolves. This was first done by Rudolph Schenkel, a researcher at the University of Basel, and was picked up later by L. David Mech, who has tragically had to spend the rest of his career trying to debunk it, in his 1970 book The Wolf.

Exiting the Center: The Unmarked Default and What To Do About It (Healthy Masculinity, Part 4)

In short, maleness has been positioned as the default, but part of the problem with this is that every default is an empty set. It quickly leaks out all particulars and so people who identify that way are robbed of a particular identity. This is exacerbated when society moves (rightly, I add!) towards a more equitable distribution of prestige and power. All of a sudden, being the default, being located at the center, doesn’t mean anything.

Crafting a Healthy Masculinity (Part 3): On Jeffrey Epstein, Incels, and the Quest for Status

A man like Jeffrey Epstein satisfies his desires flagrantly and nauseatingly because he believes his status protects him from repercussion. A man like Elliott Rodger commits a mass murder because he feels he has been shamed. The cause common to the two incidents is status, and a lack of concern for women and their autonomy and safety is just the vector, not the cause.