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In Search of Non-Toxic Manhood

Research in gender at least as far back as the 80's, where I remember reading about it, would have shown that men who were more mixed in their gender role outlook, having an even mix of feminine and masculine qualities were happier, more likely to be satisfied socially and sexually, and more attractive to women as compared to traditional men. Although the concept has gotten bad press, as when the press described Michael Jackson's non-sexual persona as androgynous, thereby smearing men with balanced sex roles, it is still a better option for men and for women. Little has changed since then, except that traditional male orientation has been found to be in many ways harmful. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/19/opinion/sunday/toxic-masculinity.html?comments#permid=30249130 Granted, we have a moderately traditional culture so many of the expectation will not go away any time soon, if ever, but the bad impulses can be tamed. We need to create a better variant, something that reje...

More Responses to an Open Letter to James Damore

As part of the Damore-related article I responded and posted about , I later wrote responses to other posters in response to a NY Times article An Open Letter to James Damore by Debra Sterling . Additional responses are below: To someone criticizing, rightly, Damore's gender views... In Hofstede's cultural dimension models, the drive for status is part of the masculinity dimension, and it varies a great deal, with the Scandinavian societies on the low end, having equivalent gender expectations, as opposed to the more traditional societies like the US. Although one might find that such traits are heritable, it is obvious that culture has a large influence on social norms. Equally important, Damore does not realize that the men entering the profession have turned the industry toxic, e.g., high pressure, not that the industry was toxic and therefore drove women away, or that what he assumes is the profession is simply emblematic of life in corporate America. Several years...

A Response to an Open Letter to James Damore

I posted a comment in response to An Open Letter to James Damore by Debra Sterling , below: It doesn't get mentioned, but some of the same stereotypes that Damore claims make women ill-suited for technology, e.g., extroversion and emotional management, are the same traits that in some studies have been shown to make teams more productive. The concern about managing relationships, regardless of gender, has been shown to correlate with more effective team leaders. Extroversion in programmers has also been shown to correlate with team productivity. I'm sure there are findings that might contradict the above, but Damore seems to have a very narrow view of what makes one effective. Leadership, or at least getting to the top, in Damore's view, and in traditional masculine societies, might require a desire for dominance and a penchant for combativeness, but ideal styles of leadership typically require driving consensus, presenting a vision, social cohesion and charisma, obvious...