Thread by @cvaldary

I read about how the @APA recently wrote that “traditional masculinity—marked by stoicism, competitiveness, dominance and aggression—is, on the whole, harmful.”

I have some...well I have some thoughts, lol.

First, I don't know if anyone at the APA knows what Stoicism is. It is an ancient Greek philosophy that teaches how to withstand constant changes in life and how to remain in control when all else seems chaotic. It also teaches us how to overcome knee-jerk impulses.

I keep a book called 'The Daily Stoic' by @RyanHoliday on my desk & read a chapter every day. Its lessons, if internalized by society would actually lead to LESS reactive aggression (which I suspect is what the APA is trying to get at when it uses these vague terms.

Secondly, let's discuss competitiveness. We would have to destroy entire industries (like sports) & the basic drive we have in life to succeed, in order to make sense of the APA's guidelines. (The implicit suggestion that women -- ay, humans -- aren't competitive is ridiculous.)

Indeed, human nature is competitive. This impulse exists within both men and women, including the people who wrote the APA guide. So calls to get rid of it is a call to destroy human nature.

Dominance. Related to the concept of competition, dominance is just another synonym for "to win." As in Serena Williams "dominates" the court. Or Lebron James just "dominates." In certain contexts, dominance can be good or bad, but out of context it is a fairly neutral term.

The term "aggression" refers to "hostile behavior or attitudes toward another." Like the other terms, whether this is bad or not depends on the context. A coach tells an athlete to "be aggressive." This is totally different from a drunk guy being aggressive on a subway train.

So the problem is two-fold: It defines certain states of being as problematic when they're only problematic in certain contexts (& helpful in others); & the building up of healthy men & women requires just that, not the degradation of one in the name of the elevation of the other