Redefining Masculinity & Masculism as a Movement

What is Masculism?

I have been pondering on this for a while now, hoping I could easily google something in my desperate attempt to understand whether this is actually a term with a somewhat shared definition, and whether there are men and women who stand behind it.
Fail, fail fail.

To be honest, in my mind I presumed it was the opposite of Feminism, but same in the sense that it was about equality of the sexes but founded by men as a supportive system for men, males and masculinity – fathers, husbands, brothers and sons. In Wikitheory – maybe!? In Cybereality: wrong!

It seemed like patriarchy had already erased the idea before it became a concept and instead of optimism, I was left sour with disappointment when I realised it was a type of anti-feminist movement with men sharing opinions about a very misunderstood understanding of Feminism?! I found men sulking about what they had felt compelled to accept, a projection, a misrepresentation of feminism, which truly and simply is a movement for equality and love.

It felt like those awkwardly painful moments when people of colour realise white people think BlackLivesMatter & Black Power are about supremacy; because they have failed to check their privilege and their history and realise that with acceptance of the former comes understanding, which leads to progression.

The difference is, oppressed people don’t usually occupy their minds with thoughts of dominance because they’re probably too busy trying to rebuild themselves in order to share a new understanding of their identities. I went on a mission to ask men of various ages, genders, sexual orientations,class, and ethnic backgrounds their opinion on the matter of Masculinity & Masculism and to my surprise… I got AIR! Maybe I projected and believed that I chose the ‘right’ or ‘left’, (no pun) guys, but I got nothing… well, a few attempts at responding and maybe hoping, but we ended up crashing back down to the pavement in shock of what felt like the reality of our masculine identities that maybe, just, weren’t..?!
Scary…? * Scream noises and scream painting*

So I end this journal by posing these same questions again, just in case there are some people out there who want to challenge, answer or defend some collective point of view, in order to discover what we collectively think Masculinity is, (should be, might be?) and attempt to redefine something that once belonged to us all… Please! Go for it!

So here goes…

1. What is Masculism? – Where is it, should it exist, how does it work, and what does it stand for? Is it anti-feminist?

2. How has patriarchal society formed the male identity?

3. As a man, or male-identifying person, in a White Western Euro Imperialist Capitalist Patriarchal society, how do you define the role of a Man?

4. How does this ideology affect the way one sees oneself, others and women in spaces such as marriage, dating, workplace?

5. How does it affect ideas and perceptions about homosexuality, nuclear families, women as housewives?

6. How can we embrace different types of men who identify in various ways – Queer Bisexual, Queer Hetero, She/He/Trans, etc?

7. What is necessary for the world to understand that Feminism is for everybody?

8. What can we do to re-define ourselves in terms of sexuality, gender and the expectancies and pressures that sprout from social gender constructions?

Till we get some answers I guess… BRB

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