this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2025
734 points (98.3% liked)
Greentext
6982 readers
1664 users here now
This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
- Anon is often crazy.
- Anon is often depressed.
- Anon frequently shares thoughts that are immature, offensive, or incomprehensible.
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
People like this are the progressive version of evangelicals. And like with Christianity they don't get called out enough to keep it from becoming a major problem.
Villainizing male sexuality is why we have a whole new generation boys heading into alt right circles and so far the response has been a variant of telling them to 'man up.' And its going to get a lot worse before it gets even a little better.
OMG i've been saying this for years and every time I get bashed for it (in liberal/left/prog circles)
Because you can't suggest that the (liberal/left/blue/prog/nonfash) aren't perfect or are doing something not ideal
idk man 9 times out of 10 I hear someone talking about progressives, they're exclusively referring to the most hypocritical ones. Like, when does anyone talk about the normal progressives that just want good things for everyone? That's boring.
I don't count conservatives
okay, but then, who else is talking about progressives?
This is the root of the problem with much of the discussion around male identity online.
Women finally, and rightfully, gained a voice, and plenty of dudes listened. Many of them, not really understanding feminism as an academic discipline or having any real sympathy towards any aspect of being a man, used that voice to point of the many issues faced by women in the world and to fight for women.
Where this falls apart is that because of the lack of real understanding regarding feminism and the concept of patriarchy, a lot of it boiled down to "shut up, the women are talking" and "we don't care about your problems"
None of this makes the problems away, none of this is really geared towards equality, and much of it is just switching the genders on deeply toxic patriarchal power structures that were used to oppress women for centuries.
When you think about how stupid 90% of the people involved on both sides of this discourse online are, it's of little surprise so many women went looking for easy answers from hucksters who pitched exploitation and oppression as empowerment.
I really liked bell hooks's approach to this. She focuses on incorporating male problems into feminism as a focal point, not excluding them.
Interesting. What's a good place to start reading what bell hooks said about this?
The Will to Change by bell hooks is the one book that made me feel seen as a person. Usually I open a feminist book with the suspicion that the author will be like "all men are evil" and that usually makes me care less about feminism for a while. But that book was a pleasant surprise, it spoke to me and not at me.