I kinda want to take a bit of a break from harder politics. SO i wanted to start a discussion on what I believe "masculine" traits really are.

Now. I'm a bit of a mythology buff. I have several friends who are wiccan. And we've had some interesting conversations on the traits of gods and goddesses. And how they're worshipped.

They've expressed to me that in many ways the goddesses they worship are more of "representations" of the things they value and hold closely.

I think this paradigm can tell us a lot about what was valued historically in both men and women.

For example. Odin, The allfather, and ruler of the aesir norse gods is a god of war, Wisdom, Sovereignty, and the dead.

But also of poetry, Song, and Magic (which was considered feminine in norse cultures)

All in all. While violence was a part of the patriarch of the norse gods (because violence was part of living to those cultures)

Norse cultures also deeply valued music poetry and even to some extent. wordplay. Bards held a special place in norse societies. (and I could go on about the role of music in mythology and folklore. Like how in finnish mythology the terms bard and magician are used almost interchangeably. Or how satire was respected in Ancient Ireland. It was thought to have great power, enough to physically maim the subject one was making jokes about. Satirists could bring down kings with a witty enough insult. That was actually their original function. When the king didn’t do right by his people, a bard was supposed to compose a poem so scathing it would raise welts on the king’s skin to oust him (it was illegal for a “blemished” king to rule.) Unwarranted satire was considered a form of assault.)

There's also been a write up from the bestof subreddit that I've been pondering. I won't post the whole thing for the sake of brevity. But here's the relevant bits.

A better model for human behavior would be our chimpanzee relatives, or maybe even bonobos. Now chimps have alphas, but they’re not what you think. The alpha isn’t the most aggressive. They don’t win power through domination or subjugation. They become the alpha by endearing themselves to the troop. They spend a lot of time grooming others, they share, and they mediate fights. They make friends, and win power via winning hearts and minds. This is basically the complete opposite of the colloquial use of the term “alpha”. The real alpha isn’t the dude with the big truck and the big guns, bragging about how many fights he’s won. The real alpha is the nice, strong, confident leader, who always looks after his friends and is willing to make new ones.

The guy that calls himself an alpha is really just a bully. And in the chimp world, nobody likes the bully. They’re unpredictable, volatile, and they disrupted the harmony of the troop. The other members have babies. They have old chimps. They rely on harmony in the troop so that there is no violence and their needs are met. They have no need for a bully, and the bully is a threat. So if the bully goes too far... the rest of them beat him to death...

Now essentially the point I would like to get from this is that the masculine role is traditionally much wider than we give it credit.

it encompasses things like Charisma, Kindness, leadership, Caring for those around you. And more importantly. offering value.

The manliest heroes of ancient cultures were those who could not only fight. But those who could sing and make merry, Those who could make everybody around them feel valuable.