I was talking to a friend the other day about positive qualities of men which are specifically like, positive "masculine" traits which are not "toxic masculinity" and are not "positive traits in general that anyone could have and aren't particularly gendered." After I listed a bunch that I could think of, his response was to say that I had essentially described a stone monolith and all of those qualities could easily be achieved by an inanimate object better than any human being trying to live in the social role of Man.
I was talking to another friend about how men have a very strict tightrope to walk to be seen as a Good Guy whether it be in culturally conservative spaces or in culturally progressive spaces, but that at least the conservative cultures make it very clear what the expectations are for men while the progressive cultures are quick to criticize men for being too masculine but also can be socially punishing to men who are not being masculine enough. The standards aren't clear for what exactly a man is supposed to be and what's left is not much to live inside of for those who do wish to present as men, whether they be cis or trans.
The synthesis of these conversations is troubling. Clearly in order to keep men from crossing over into conservatism we need to give them a few more traits and label them Masculine to expand the class a bit. Buff them a bit since they've been a bit overly nerfed.
I suggest perhaps:
- Adept at heists
- Excellent at navigating a group of friends through crowded places
- Darkvision
- Earth magic
- Communes with woody plants and fungi
- Wild shape: Bear or Wolf
