Okay, let me make a real post out of this for Prof. Sto– I mean @afloweroutofstone.
I think part of the public liking of anime and posting of anime tiddies, despite being considered low-class activities on the internet, reflects a coming meltdown in masculinity.
There’s a common perception that masculinity is essentially impervious to attack, which is driven by focusing almost entirely on men at the top and ignoring men at the bottom or treating them as non-men. (Also by ignoring what masculinity of the kind people want to attack even is.)
The real weaknesses of masculinity, however, are at the margins, not from Trudeau wearing pink. The men who are already having trouble performing masculinity and being judged wanting just… giving up on performing masculinity in terms of its integration with society.
For now, the broader status hierarchy based on performing masculinity in order to appeal to a combination of other men and neurotypical, heterosexual women, is holding.
But it’s going to erode as new, competing status hierarchies form and expand among those who have no reason to abide by their low status in the old ones. We’re seeing a war and division over them in “geek” culture, currently, but new culture hierarchy conflicts are going to spread as the gender system destabilizes.
This is one of those rebellions that begins with the peasants out in the provinces and makes its way into the city.
It’s visible in all sorts of low-status men that many of your readers would hate. But if it were already accepted, it wouldn’t be a true revolution, and this is what not being accepted looks like, in part, WRT the male gender role.
