Barbara Kay
The Post Millennial
The American Psychological Association (APA) has, for the first time in its history, come out with Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men.
One does not have to have read the entire 30,000 word document to appreciate its thrust: "traditional masculinity" is bad for society as well as to boys and men themselves. Stoicism, competitiveness and risk-taking, the qualities we consider desirable when they result in firefighting, search-and-rescue operations, self-sacrifice for women and children (see under Titanic) and combat in the defence of the nation, are, the APA believes, "psychologically harmful."
In a section called "masculine ideology," the APA says: "Masculine ideology is a set of descriptive, prescriptive, and proscriptive ... cognitions about boys and men (academic citations added). Although there are differences in masculinity ideologies, there is a particular constellation of standards that have held sway over large segments of the population, including: anti-femininity, achievement, eschewal of the appearance of weakness, and adventure, risk and violence. These have been collectively referred to as traditional masculinity ideology." This statement seems to have been composed by someone who has to bite her or his tongue in order not to describe manly men as "deplorables."
Let's unpack this a bit. By "anti-femininity," the APA means homophobia, but homophobia as a systematic attitude was not so much a feature of traditional masculinity as of traditional society. Women in a previous era were as likely to mock homosexuals as men. "Violence" was never a yardstick for masculinity in our culture, although physicality is.
The others - achievement, eschewal of the appearance of weakness, adventure, and risk-taking - are indeed masculine qualities, and they are not part of an "ideology," they are inherent. They are the qualities that brought humankind from caves to the Silk Road to global exploration across dangerous seas and to the moon landing. But the monumental accomplishments that can be traced directly to these masculine traits are of no interest to the APA. The Guidelines spew forth all the predictable shibboleths of social-justice warriordom - intersectionality, oppression, privilege, patriarchy, etc. Under the rubrics of Identity Politics, "traditional masculinity" is inherently toxic to women and other fragile people.
Read more
The Post Millennial
The American Psychological Association (APA) has, for the first time in its history, come out with Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men.
One does not have to have read the entire 30,000 word document to appreciate its thrust: "traditional masculinity" is bad for society as well as to boys and men themselves. Stoicism, competitiveness and risk-taking, the qualities we consider desirable when they result in firefighting, search-and-rescue operations, self-sacrifice for women and children (see under Titanic) and combat in the defence of the nation, are, the APA believes, "psychologically harmful."
In a section called "masculine ideology," the APA says: "Masculine ideology is a set of descriptive, prescriptive, and proscriptive ... cognitions about boys and men (academic citations added). Although there are differences in masculinity ideologies, there is a particular constellation of standards that have held sway over large segments of the population, including: anti-femininity, achievement, eschewal of the appearance of weakness, and adventure, risk and violence. These have been collectively referred to as traditional masculinity ideology." This statement seems to have been composed by someone who has to bite her or his tongue in order not to describe manly men as "deplorables."
Let's unpack this a bit. By "anti-femininity," the APA means homophobia, but homophobia as a systematic attitude was not so much a feature of traditional masculinity as of traditional society. Women in a previous era were as likely to mock homosexuals as men. "Violence" was never a yardstick for masculinity in our culture, although physicality is.
The others - achievement, eschewal of the appearance of weakness, adventure, and risk-taking - are indeed masculine qualities, and they are not part of an "ideology," they are inherent. They are the qualities that brought humankind from caves to the Silk Road to global exploration across dangerous seas and to the moon landing. But the monumental accomplishments that can be traced directly to these masculine traits are of no interest to the APA. The Guidelines spew forth all the predictable shibboleths of social-justice warriordom - intersectionality, oppression, privilege, patriarchy, etc. Under the rubrics of Identity Politics, "traditional masculinity" is inherently toxic to women and other fragile people.
Read more
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