Why is it ok for women to be (do) masculine (things) but not vice versa?

[ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by PianoManGidley

Yes, and the "lower" role of females can be traced all the way back to the days in which we were starting to settle down in certain areas instead of being nomadic tribes. Because of physiological advantages, men were the hunters, whereas women would go out and gather plant foods. When communities starting farming the land, that's when things started to change. Women were still tending to the crops while men went out to hunt...but as soon as a man invented a tool that could plow the land or reap the crops faster, the woman's role in the society was diminished, replaced by technology. And it just went downhill from there.

Yes but you guys still can't make a baby and you'd never survivie giving birth. If it was left up to you, the race would die off,

I agree that technology has decreased women's roles, even childbirth. Used to be we had to have lots of babies to make sure enough surivived to populate the next generation. Now the vast majority of our offspring survive so reproducing is a much smaller part of our lives.

Most of the work we did to help the family survive has been replaced with technology. To the point, you don't even need a wife to raise kids these days. Hire a nanny and a house keeper and you're done. It's not like the days when women smoked meat and canned to preserve food for the winter, made her own family's clothes and had to get up before dawn to draw water from the well.

So, women are redefining their roles more in terms of what men have always done. We're now providers as well as mothers but that has served to further diminish the role of mom since it's no longer seen as something one must do "full time" (meaning 24 hours a day).

[Freelancer]

Originally Posted by PianoManGidley

Eh....all this talk about not caring what anyone thinks and being true to yourself...I agree with that to an extent, but what if you feel that being true to yourself includes raping and murdering children? Is it still okay? I mean, hey, after all--let's not care what ANYONE thinks...including the police.

You mean wouldn't you act like a jerk/*******/vandalize right?

Let me ask with a rebutal question to you:
Would you vandalize something when nobody is watching?
Would you kill somebody if you know nobody would know about it?

Acting through your own intent regardless of other people's perceptions of who you are results in the behavior you have when your alone.
A lot of people have the feeling when they get home 'finally I can be myself'.

What we are saying is be yourself always regardless if anybody is watching you.

[Erebos]

lol, so...the next time I meet a gay guy who likes football, cars, and skateboarding, it may be insulting to call him "straight."

Originally Posted by PianoManGidley

Whoa, wait...I wasn't saying that I feel those thoughts. I was using it as an example of taking the stance of "be yourself without regard to what anyone else thinks" to its logical extreme. It's a fine tenet to live by, but not as such a fundamental principal that trumps everything else.

I think it's implied that you should be yourself without regard to what anyone else thinks to the point that you start harming others. If you're a guy who likes to wear a lot of make up, then go right on ahead. It may look weird to some people, but it's not going to hurt anyone else. I think this is a good tenet to live by.