Monday I attended a lecture about masculinities scholarship. I've also been doing a lot of reading for class regarding masculinity. Did you know there is currently a crisis in masculinity? Men do not know how to act like men. One reason for this existential crisis is that as women enter the workforce and assert more aggressive tendencies, previously reserved for men, men do not know how to differentiate themselves from women.
Hmmm
I am still figuring out what to think about this. What do you mean men don't know how to act masculine? I find this intriguing since the masculinist arguments I have come across are also biologically essentialist. Stating that men do not know how to assert their masculinity implies that masculinity is taught and socialized. But if men and women are inherently different and this comes out in our behaviour, does masculinity really need to be taught? If femininity and masculinity are so fundamental to human existence, why must they be taught?
I do not buy into the idea of masculine versus feminine. I do think there are different ways to perform identity, but I do not think that performance needs to be gendered. What is the purpose of gendering performance?
One obvious answer is that performance is a component of attraction. Women are more attracted to assertive men and men are attracted...too...well all women? I know that's a bullshit argument, but I find the whole gender performance as a mating ritual a bullshit idea. I think that it makes attraction and desire too base. Attraction is still a mysterious thing. It isn't common knowledge what makes people attracted to each other. Maybe performance is part of it. But think of this: if identity performance was based on who we are as people rather than gendered notions of performance, wouldn't our relationships turn out better? Are you really attracted to your partner because s/he performs his/her gender so well? If you are just casually fucking them, then the answer may be yes. But if you are in a committed relationship, you probably like him/her as a person and less as a prime example of gender performativity.
I think we should just stop worrying so much about crises of masculinity or femininity. Let's just worry about how we act as people and perform our identities. Should gender really be a part of that?
