This will only take a minute...

When did masculinity take a backseat to civility?
Think about that statement. As we have become a more "civilized" culture masculine tendencies have become less socially accepted. I spent a lot of time talking to my grandpa and some of my uncles the other day. For them, fistfights were a right of passage and very commonplace. Nowadays fights are not that common and people that get in fights are "troubled" or given some sort of egregious label. That's just one example. They also talked about how they were raised with firearms. By the time they were ten they all had bb guns, .22s, and other small firearms. They never got hurt or shot eachother and they were fairly good with them. Flash forward to today, what is the average 10 year old more likely to be able to do well shoot, operate, dismantle and clean a gun or an arts and crafts project like making and decorating a card for someone? One more example becuase I have a lot of stuff to do today. Why is playing with explosives or playing with fire considered white trash? Because it was once considered masculine. It used to conjure images of war heros that personified testosterone on a battlefield who were killing nazis and charming french supermodels while saving a busload of orphans that somehow got stranded on Normandy beach. Now lighting stuff on fire or blowing something up is white trash or uncivil. That is society trying to homogenize society and take masculinity out of the picture. As men and women have become more equal in society there have been attempts to homogenize behaviors. That's my theory at least. This is just something random I think about in the shower. Anyways, as females have become more equal to men in society behavior has become more equal and standardized as well. Certain male tendencies have become "uncivilized" but that's not how we're supposed to act. We have oceans of testosterone running through our veins. We have aggressive tendencies we need to indulge sometimes. Don't think I am bad-mouthing feminism. I am all for equal rights for women and I realize that it's a double-edged sword. If a woman wants to make it in the business world she has to act a bit more masculine in order to make it or be accepted. Like I said, behavior has become homogenized and men and women are meeting somewhere in the middle. I'm not saying it is a bad thing. I just don't like some of the side effects. Right now I'm just continuing to type becuase I don't want to do my homework or clean out my basement. I'm stalling.... Sorry for that. I don't think my thoughts were nearly as organized as I meant for them to be. Feel free to argue or discuss this with me.