Gendered question, I know. If you don’t identify as a man, please feel free to answer with whatever you want. I meant to post it in the Men’s Lib sub but somehow it always bugs for me.
Let’s spill the tea lads
I like painting my nails.
I like gardening and I take great pride in my plants and upcoming indoor veggie and herb garden.
I dance when I go out.
I like bright colors.
I like candles that smell nice.
I like flowers.
I like Harry Styles.
I like crocheting.
Whatever you like, be proud of it. There is no such thing as liking something unmanly. Nothing can harm your manliness. Do what you want.
I’ve had a bad case of anhedonia the past few years, so I don’t find myself enjoying many things, manly or otherwise. However, I can say some “manly” things I don’t like.
I never cared for professional sports. I could maybe get it if the teams actually had ties to the cities they’re in, but trading players between teams baffles me. Then you get to fantasy sports, where people basically just track numbers and bet. People tell me sports teams are a great way to find common ground with strangers, but all I can see are brands being used to shove ads in peoples’ faces and encourage people to gamble.
Same, all the guys I’ve met are crazy about sports and FIFA games. When I was in high school, I would skip playing football during Phys Ed and watch what the girls were doing instead.
I got out of gym class in highschool because people in band class don’t have to take it.
I could maybe get it if the teams actually had ties to the cities they’re in, but trading players between teams baffles me.
I think this is probably part of why the only time I follow football is when it’s the World Cup or the Euros or something with the national teams like that. Obviously I’m not super into the nationalism aspect of it all, but I guess I just find the concept of managers having to kinda just work with what they’ve got more appealing than rich clubs just buying up most of the best players.
Olympics are better somewhat since national allegiance is much more stringent, but things like the World Cup, Euros, FIFA suck as the teams are bought and traded basically. Like how Frances team from this past FIFA was basically all made up of players from its colonies and not France.
I think the term “manly” has been so polluted. I don’t think there is nothing “unmanly” with:
- Loving nature.
- Loving your neighbor (even Jesus said to).
- Loving culture (and accepting other’s culture).
- Showing emotion (except for you narcissists who use this as an excuse for abuse. Fuck you).
- Dancing.
- Going outside just to feel the wind gently blowing your hair and caressing your face.
We are capable of very complex modes of existing. There is no reason to keep being the same hateful person every day. It takes courage to go out of your confort zone. It takes courage to be a “man”. Whatever it is that word means. Love you all. <3
Edit: Guys, are comments like this valuable? On Reddit I felt the need to write this way, but everyone seems so chill here…
We are very chill here. I hope this post can show the new people what Lemmygrad can be as well, a fun and supporting community. There’s no need to hide who you are here, so feel free to type whichever way you want.
💪
Since I am a man, everything I do is automatically manly
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i never saw gardening as something “unmanly”, but that might be because i live in a semi-rural area. everybody and their paw-paw gardens, just about. i always paint my nails, and sometimes i’ll wear makeup. i see other people mentioning cooking and sewing, but i think that’s very dependant on where you’re at. my dad, brothers, uncles, male cousins all cook and sew. i always thought it was weird if men couldn’t do that; in context of “traditional” Western masculinity, doesn’t that mean youre weak and cant provide if you can’t cook for your family to keep them fed, or can’t fix their clothes to keep them warm? though embroidery is considered feminine, and i like to practice that. i’m really bad at it, but it counts!
Women were forcefully relegated to housework only, so things like cooking and sewing were all that women could do if they didn’t want to go insane or be beat.
So by extension, in many places those tasks are considered unmanly.
I love adorable animals, I’ll squeal with delight whenever I see a video of one. Alpacas are my favorite.
atta boy
Girl, actually. She touches more grass than I do.
Reptiles are my favorite and every time I see some lizard or tiny snake, I let them crawl on me
When I visited Disney World as a kid I loved the little lizards running around the resorts. Those lizards are the only good thing about Florida.
I like doing skincare and facial scrubs and fancy soaps and such (I do wish it wasn’t as tarnished by consumerism but I’ve got no other alternatives)- and apparently I’ve gotten too good at it because strangers mistake me for a girl sometimes.
Same. Skincare routine for men is underrated. Skincare after shaving is still skincare, guys. Apply creams, moisturizer, face masks etc. Your skin will thank you.
I write poetry, garden in the spring and summer, and enjoy the likes of Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, and Tetris; all of which it puzzles me how those games got classified as ‘girly’. Like mf, I’d like to see YOU manage a hundred lines at TGM 20G with steadily-rising garbage lines; see how ya do
🥁🥁🪇
(Imagine the maracas are cymbals.)
Poetry is a strange one. I also write some and when I mention it I get the strangest looks and have had some awful responses.
I usually refer them to Akala when I hear the gendered shit. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s a British rapper. He wrote a great book about race. He works with the Royal Shakespeare Company (I think) and goes around schools putting Shakespeare to a beat and explaining how e.g. Tupac rapped in iambic pentameter. He has videos on YouTube and his Fire in the Booth rap is great.
I want to say keep rhyming, Reggaelater Demoman, but my poems don’t always rhyme and yours might not, either. Keep writing!
My problem is I can’t not write rhymes; and it didn’t always used to be that way. In elementary, thanks to the teacher who passed along that proclivity to the whole damn class, my bestie was always the one who could write fluent, metered bars; and I just sorta e.e. cummings’d my shit. Liked using the formatting of the lines for aesthetic purposes, but never really had a handle for fitting rhymes to how I was feeling.
…Then I started dipping into UK grime(talm like, Kano, Skepta, Dizzee Rascal, Jme, Tempa T, and them), used that as a springboard to start swimming through the kinds of music my family wanted to keep me away from. (Ironically, my own damn culture, or what shoulda been.) On the other side of a crippling clipping, JPEGMAFIA, Saul Williams, and Stormzy addiction, though, all of my stuff comes out rhyming nowadays. My compositition book looks deadass like a backpacker’s lmfao
soaps/shampoos/conditioners marketed at women are always somehow better than the “Badass” manly ones by Adidas or whatever.
I use whatever happens to be in the shower. Many times it’s marketed towards women.
The scent of Lavender VS The scent of WARCRIMES
I love knitting and sewing. It’s very relaxing and I love seeing what I make! Even better if I do a good enough job to wear it!
I sleep basically every night with a stuffed animal that I received from a very close and important friend. (He’s also pink so it’s even more “unmanly”)
Gardening is so fun! My cucumbers and tomatoes are coming along so well! (My watermelons not so much, only 1 of 4 have survived due to deer)
Cleaning is very fun to me. Seeing things become clean is very rewarding, especially if I’m doing it for someone else close to me.
Cooking is a very high interest of mine! Particularly baking!
Painting my nails is also very fun and I can’t wait to do that more, as that’s sadly a dangerous thing to do where I live.
Kissing other guys. This is either extreme manly in the eyes of the Greeks and Spartans, or extremely unmanly in the current western purview.
I do funny little dances when I hear songs I like playing in the store.
