In her book, Gyn/Ecology, Mary Daly points out, although in not so many words, that projection and distortion of women’s images is one of the prerogatives of patriarchy. No wonder so many men do not want to be cured from this. They feel that curing them would also undermine their masculinity! But of course it is entirely fake to begin with, that sort of masculinity. All the more reason for some men to be afraid of losing what is only a disguise from the offset. How much more shame in losing that, when there is nothing solid, nothing real, underneath!
I differ from some of the radical fem. school that she represents in that I do not think that all masculinity is like this — necessarily artificial, which is to say socially constructed. When a man is not afraid to be himself, that is, when he refuses to be socially contrived, to put on an image and distort the images of others, he cannot help but be much more appealing. This takes genuine force of character, even guts. Daly doesn’t think men are capable of this, because she thinks they can only be masculine by artifice -- that is by virtue of smoke and mirrors and by putting women down. (Unfortunately this is most common.)
There remain many men who are not afraid to be real.
I differ from some of the radical fem. school that she represents in that I do not think that all masculinity is like this — necessarily artificial, which is to say socially constructed. When a man is not afraid to be himself, that is, when he refuses to be socially contrived, to put on an image and distort the images of others, he cannot help but be much more appealing. This takes genuine force of character, even guts. Daly doesn’t think men are capable of this, because she thinks they can only be masculine by artifice -- that is by virtue of smoke and mirrors and by putting women down. (Unfortunately this is most common.)
There remain many men who are not afraid to be real.
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