I am posing this question to the people on this board .
There are terms I hear applied to the type of men women want, these terms include but are not limited to "manly", or " man's man" or the ever so common "Masculine"
This is what I have come to connect these terms to.
Strong, tough, muscles, brave, daring, dominating, assertive,
I know there are more, but I am going to stick with these since they are the ones I have the most issue with.
First off, I need to ask, why do you accept these terms as being "masculine"? Why are these terms even considered manly? Why can't women exhibit these terms?
Strong: Yes being strong is a handy thing. Able to lug heavy objects is something that can be quite convenient....So I posit again, what is so manly, and attractive about this for women? Strength from what I have seen has also been used to beat women, restrain them, and in many ways visit misery upon women. It is also one of the key things used in conflicts. Both to start, and propagate conflicts.
Tough: Really just a variation of the word strong, but more dealing with resistance. Once again, why is this a trait more commonly associated with the half of the species with those ever so vulnerable organs that hang between the legs, positioned in such a manner a good swift kick can incapacitate the male?
Muscles: My understanding is all animal species have these, yet I have noticed associates being manly with having big muscles. Muscles that bulge, sometimes in ways that only A LOT of time spent in a gym would result in, time in the gym, using steroids, and NOT spending time taking care of the kids, or being with their S.O. My mother absolutely hated the time my dad spent in the garage "pumping iron" and the Muscleman magazines he read, and the violent mood swings that came about after he drank following a "good" work out. I am in absolutely no way musclebound in appearance. The creator blessed me with long and lean muscles. When I was a kid my dad MADE me work out so that I would "be a man", the results were that my upper body barely developed visually, but did develop strength wise. I am what is called wirery.
But, once again I ask. Why is the muscle build of a male so important to some women? Yes, it means he MAY be able to lift large objects, and grunt a lot? But what is appealing about this? Especially now a days when we have machines that do this. Also, once again my experience is most of these muscle bound morons use those muscles to beat people up, including their lovers if they were to transgress some rule.
Brave: Now this one gets me. This is an honorable trait for ANYONE, not just men. However, in this forum we have what can be called very brave men, cause they go out in styles that for the most part would draw ridicule. Yet these men are not honored by society, instead they are shunned for the most part.
What exactly makes a man brave, cause aside from those fighting in this damned war, most of those things considered brave I often associate with fool hardy. Xtreme sports come to mind.
Dominating: I have a female friend whom, if all goes well will be my S.O. However she wants a dominant man. Now, I have learned of her past, through her. She was raped by a domineering father, at the age of 5, while her subservient mother looked on. In the course of her time on this planet, many other "dominant" cowards also beat her and raped her. They exercised their manliness by doing an extremely cowardly and damaging act. Why are so many woman drawn to Dominant men? Why is it sooooo appealing?
Assertive: My experience is this is a very wishy washy term. How so? I have seen women put off by assertive men for the most part. Women do what they can to drive off the assertiveness, and then for some odd reason complain about "their man" not being assertive. I believe the more common term for this (and one I dislike) is "pussy whipped". You have seen this male type. The type that will say "yes dear" in a rather defeated tone, to what ever pointless or stupid idea the woman comes up with (this is only in extreme cases, but unfortunately it is very common)
As I said at the beginning of this post I stated how these traits are not necessarily masculine, or feminine. They are however pushed by our society and its constructs.
I presented only the negative aspects of these traits as well, aside from the bravery one. That is because, they are the ones that I have seen are usually involved with a lot of misery on this earth. Funny enough, the traits that make life pleasant: Caring, loving, feeling, nurturing, and so on are connected with FEMININE!!! LOL.
So ladies, let's get your answers. I look forward to it.