@renardboy As one of those men who actually does associate and identify with images of predatory animals, i am hella glad you've got an image that speaks to you more.

I'm all for a broader, more positive masculinity that has room for more than aggression and control. It's redefinition means freedom for soooo many of us

@renardboy

Bus. Tree. Happiness.

@renardboy I prefer to associate my mascuilnity with a beaver.

Vegan high-fibre diet, excellent swimmer, hard-working, builder of habitat-forming engineering projects, likes to live in monogamous pairs with their kids, produces headache cures from their anal glands, communicates mostly through whining.

@renardboy I'm sure there are lots of bad reasons to see yourself as a predator: I bet sociopaths go for it.

But I imagine it's also attractive to folks who don't have anything like what they want; their inner self feels the need to hunt it down.

@renardboy

Counterargument: Bear.

You get to walk around more, but also sleep a lot. You don't get judged for being fat and hairy. As for food, you get to sit in a river waiting for fish to, sometimes literally, jump into your mouth.

@renardboy

"I'm gonna reach...."

https://youtu.be/jPekI4q0SGg?si=rV9tn_-2F1g1BmNw

@renardboy When I was coming out of being a lawyer, man, I loathed people who even jokingly thought to refer to me as 'the hammer'.

I feel like it's in the same boat as the predatory thing. Gotta be big. Gotta hit hard. Gotta be dangerous.

If somebody called me 'the tree' - yeah. I'd dig that.

@renardboy

thank you bus tree you have spawned a great thread 🖖🏾

@renardboy I mean, if men want to identify with a predator why not birds... they often mate for life, and build nests, and take care of their young a lot better than male mammals...

But I like your vision. Trees are wonderful.

@renardboy

I agree strongly with the metaphor. However, you may wish to consider that oaks are, biologically, monoecious - they produce both male and female flowers. Not a bad feature for your metaphor, combining male and female aspects, but there are no boy oaks (which I rather like, but the lion, panther, and hawk folks on the thread may have a problem).

@renardboy The traditional, somewhat toxic, ideal of masculinity idealises men as controlled violence. The "Ideal Man" doesn't start fights, but if challenged he won't back down and will proceed to beat his opponent up to precisely the level of injury he judges appropriate for the insult.

If the man doesn't have barely controlled impulses to violence, he is not a Real Man. And if he can't control them, then he is a failure of a man.

That applies to sex too. So goes the traditional male role.

@renardboy

This is a perfect description of the kind of masculinity I'm trying to embody. Kind, supportive, gentle, steady. Slow to anger and inherently protective of the people under my branches.

@renardboy I thought, yeah a fox !
A sneaky, playfull, smart and nice fox.

And them, i saw your username.

@renardboy

Personally I like to think of myself as a hedgehog: it's a creature that can quite freely move about without having to think about all the dangers that afflict most small mammals.

It may not be the most "catcher in the rye" -thing to do, but to me the animal embodies both the peace of mind I constantly try to pursue in the middle of this late stage capitalism of ours, as well as the privileges I enjoy in society based on my form and shape.