Who are men?

As a rule, I don't put much energy into thinking about men and manhood. One of the great benefits of age, economic stability, and lesbian-identification is that I don't have to. Don't get me wrong; there are plenty of men around me who I like and even admire. I just enjoy the privilege of thinking of them as people, not as men.

So I probably would never have listened to the podcast from Death, Sex and Money called Manhood, Now if they hadn't partnered with FiveThirtyEight which dropped it in my feed.

Their polling findings from over 1600 respondents are fascinating. Here's what men worry about:

If I hadn't told you this was what men worry about, would you have known these were the concerns of guys? I'm not sure I would have; women worry about the same stuff, though perhaps not so much about the appearance of our genitalia.

But the interviews in the podcast were absolutely fascinating to me.

"Don’t be weak. Don’t be small. Don’t be poor. Don’t be emotional. Don’t be feminine. Don’t be aggressive. Don’t be unapproachable. Don’t be sexist. Don’t be patronizing. Don’t be entitled. Don’t be unemotional. Don’t be big. Don’t be loud.

You might notice a lot of contradictions here."

These interviewers did a great job of mixing conversations with men of many ages, races, sexual orientations, and gender identities in 43 minutes. If interested in contemporary masculinity, highly recommended.