An Unbreakable Thread- Day 232 (August 23rd, 2021)

Why do we, as a collective society, find it bold and outgoing for a man to tell a woman what she wants, what she likes, etc...

Now you'll find many people who speak against it, men and women alike, but still these are the types of boys/men who are most popular in school and most sought after: the top of the totem pole. Even if a woman is looking for something different, the immediate attraction is to the one who is most typical and masculine. It is sewn into the fabric of society, an unbreakable thread. For the few at the top, they experience all of the cliché things our fathers and other male figures push on us. For the rest of us, you are left somewhere in the middle, criticized for all the faults you have and compared to the top of the totem pole. If, as a man, you try and respect women and show them that we are equal in position and importance, suddenly the question becomes "Why don't you man up? Take charge of her and show her who's boss. Show her why you wear the pants."

Man is defined by social boundaries. If you ever hope to fit or feel like you measure up, the expectation is to essentially simplify yourself, dumb yourself down.

This isn't the simplified reason why I am transitioning. Though I find maleness to be an impossible game of king of the hill, I would have found my place somewhere in the middle if I was truly a man. But I don't think like a man, don't want to carry myself like a man, don't want to continue to pretend that dress shirts are a preference to dresses. I am not a man but I have the experience of having viewed life through that window for thirty years. And it gives me an understanding I wouldn't otherwise have. And it essentially comes down to this, "If you're not the head, you're automatically the tail." That needs to change ASAP.