Men's Psychology: Why Male Only Groups Are Good

kizzan · 2014-09-15T04:58:13+00:00

This is so needed.

Oris_Mador · 2014-09-15T06:51:22+00:00

Yeah, I have good fun getting together with my friends for some tabletop gaming on Sundays. It was annoying for a while when one guy's girlfriend decided to tag along. She didn't play. She just turned up week after week and sat there.

2014-09-15T15:38:37+00:00

Male friendship is formed around jokes, favors, and associations -- all things under attack.

If we are to engage in Wade’s personal disclosure relationships, we first must feel secure. That is why men have always felt comfortable in clubs, fraternities, and other exclusive groups. Membership implies discretion: What happens at the Rotary Club stays at the Rotary Club, enabling men to open up and speak frankly. While men enjoy access to these types of bonds in, say, college fraternities, these places vanish in adulthood.

... The erosion of “male space,” as psychologist Helen Smith convincingly argued in her otherwise problematic book, “Men on Strike,” has played a key role in the social isolation of men. “Our culture has steadily made it almost obscene for men to congregate on their own together,” Smith writes. “Men are discouraged and actively made fun of or denied the ability to be in all-male groups by the law and by the disapproval of certain segments of the culture.”

One thing that never occurs to Wade is that women have an easier time forming intimate relationships because men aren’t trying to elbow their way into their heart-to-heart sessions. ... Wade may be correct in her diagnosis about the isolation of American men, but the concept of how and why we form tight bonds—jokes, favors, formal association—is foreign to her. She thinks masculine social interaction is the problem, femininity the corrective, a diagnosis that has helped to demonize and isolate millions of young boys in American schools. ... Wade ends her diatribe against masculinity as any good abusive spouse that’s trying to control a partner’s friendship would: “Man up and make some friends. We can’t do it for you.”

No, you can’t, but we can do it in spite of you.

Title	Men's Psychology: Why Male Only Groups Are Good
Author	wrez
Upvotes	5
Comments	3
Date	September 15, 2014 3:48 AM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/2gffpv/mens_psychology_why_male_only_groups_are_good/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/mens-psychology-why-male-only-groups-are-good.995757 https://theredarchive.com/post/995757

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