those who would celebrate strong women must celebrate weak men.
that’s a straw man
He means it as a good thing. I think?
Oh…maybe?
to celebrate women challenging feminine norms and adopting roles traditionally coded as masculine while scorning men who challenge masculine norms and take on traditionally feminine roles is simply to reinforce the idea that masculinity as is superior to femininity, not a progressive stance but highly reactionary.
cultural engineering that attempts to use traditional masculinity to subvert itself comes across as deceptive pandering (”are you MAN ENOUGH to accept your girlfriend earning more than you do??”) and builds resentment.
much like anxious femininity trying to excel at sport but still look pretty doing it, pictures of bearded lumberjacks wearing pink or bikies braiding girls hair only emphasise that of course men can be feminine: but only if they make sure to signal masculinity so hard that no one could possibly get the wrong idea.
saying “girls, don’t waste your time on a man who doesn’t have his life in order / has a decent job / has a car that works / owns a neat apartment” is an ostensibly feminist statement (”you’re worth it!”) that is just recapitulating gender norms that are centuries old: the woman chooses a man who will provide for the family.
Hollywood loves to match young actresses with old men and we love to decry that practice. support older women! yes. but are we willing to watch stories about young men, weak men, immature men, fragile men, failing men?
society hates nothing more than a weak man, and celebrating strong women only doubles down on that. those who would celebrate strong women must celebrate weak men.