Male privilege is a shield; you can choose what you use that shield for
March 7, 2019 8:42 AM Subscribe
From the realm of fanvid creations (previously: [1], [2], [3]), a meditation on men offering their help to women. I think of this vid as being about male privilege, and celebrating the moments in film/tv when we see cis men leveraging their privilege on behalf of women. I love all of these relationships because they seem largely bereft of toxic masculinity in a wonderful way.
Oh, goodness, I forgot to look logged out: there's honestly nothing with actual discretion in this post, it's just the blogger sometimes talks about queerness, sexuality, etc. on her blog and has marked the entire blog by default as "contains content to be viewed with discretion." Let me just ask mods to add a different link to the same video...
posted by sciatrix at 8:54 AM on March 7, 2019
posted by sciatrix at 8:54 AM on March 7, 2019
Oh, I know this vid! And yes, it's awesome!
posted by suelac at 9:12 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by suelac at 9:12 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
TIL that Shawn Ashmore has an identical twin brother, who stars in something I apparently need to track down. (It was the only media piece included I wasn't familiar with.) Thanks!
posted by librarianamy at 10:00 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by librarianamy at 10:00 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
Thank you for this. Positive, powerful, peppy, which is a hard combo to pull off.
posted by odayoday at 11:27 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by odayoday at 11:27 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
I loved that the music video included so many major "pop culture" male + female relationships that were supportive of each other and not necessarily romantically entangled. Hollywood, prestige TV networks, please pay attention, more of this!
posted by trackofalljades at 11:28 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by trackofalljades at 11:28 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
TIL that Shawn Ashmore has an identical twin brother
I've always enjoyed that Shawn was Iceman for Marvel (X-Men movies) and Aaron was Jimmy Olsen for DC (Smallville). And Shawn also played a villain (Eric Summers) in Smallville in earlier seasons (Jimmy Olsen was introduced in later seasons), and the fact that Eric and Jimmy looked identical was never brought up.
who stars in something I apparently need to track down. (It was the only media piece included I wasn't familiar with.)
I take it you've seen Warehouse 13 then? That's one of my favorite shows ever!
posted by numaner at 12:35 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
I've always enjoyed that Shawn was Iceman for Marvel (X-Men movies) and Aaron was Jimmy Olsen for DC (Smallville). And Shawn also played a villain (Eric Summers) in Smallville in earlier seasons (Jimmy Olsen was introduced in later seasons), and the fact that Eric and Jimmy looked identical was never brought up.
who stars in something I apparently need to track down. (It was the only media piece included I wasn't familiar with.)
I take it you've seen Warehouse 13 then? That's one of my favorite shows ever!
posted by numaner at 12:35 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
Love this. Killjoys is fantastic and librarianamy you must binge it all stat.
Loved Sleepy Hollow. Such a pity it got cancelled after the first season!
posted by rednikki at 3:09 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
Loved Sleepy Hollow. Such a pity it got cancelled after the first season!
posted by rednikki at 3:09 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I love it! Men and women aren't enemies; I'm *so tired* of all the "toxic masculinity" ideation.
Creations like this make me so hopeful - it seems like we're finally witnessing a cultural rediscovery of what's so great about traditional masculinity.
posted by phenylphenol at 3:59 AM on March 8, 2019
Creations like this make me so hopeful - it seems like we're finally witnessing a cultural rediscovery of what's so great about traditional masculinity.
posted by phenylphenol at 3:59 AM on March 8, 2019
Beautiful. Why is there so much pushback from conservatives against the concept of privilege? I guess usually it feels to people like they are being accused of something. No! There is nothing inherently wrong with being privileged--it might be an accident or it might be something wrong in history, but either way you should not feel personal guilt...but you should feel responsibility!
If you have privilege, then you are responsible to lift others up. This is not a "white-man's burden" or "white male savior" situation. The difference is highlighted by the video. The bad connotation of "savior" is when the "savior" hurts more than helps, exploiting those in need consciously or unconsciously for personal gain. We must be willing to lend our privilege (strength, voice, money) to lift others to prominence with no glory or reward forthcoming.
posted by TreeRooster at 5:50 AM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
If you have privilege, then you are responsible to lift others up. This is not a "white-man's burden" or "white male savior" situation. The difference is highlighted by the video. The bad connotation of "savior" is when the "savior" hurts more than helps, exploiting those in need consciously or unconsciously for personal gain. We must be willing to lend our privilege (strength, voice, money) to lift others to prominence with no glory or reward forthcoming.
posted by TreeRooster at 5:50 AM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
I love it! Men and women aren't enemies; I'm *so tired* of all the "toxic masculinity" ideation.
Creations like this make me so hopeful - it seems like we're finally witnessing a cultural rediscovery of what's so great about traditional masculinity.
*tilts head* That's a really interesting point of view, given that the vidmaker is explicitly opposing toxic masculinity--or am I misreading you? (Very possible.) I don't necessarily think that I'd call the kinds of protective and supportive behaviors that these guys are taking part in "traditional" masculinity, although I'd definitely call them "masculinity." I don't think traditionality is part of it, particularly when so many toxically masculine values are very traditional. Chivalry, for example, places women on a pedestal in the same ways
That doesn't mean that these values and actions aren't part of some traditional concepts of what masculinity means, either! It's just that I don't think traditional is opposed to toxicity, if you feel me. I'm definitely a fan of finding new ways to celebrate masculinity and make it a positive set of things, but I'm not sure I agree that healthy masculinity is the same as traditional masculinity.
posted by sciatrix at 11:28 AM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
Creations like this make me so hopeful - it seems like we're finally witnessing a cultural rediscovery of what's so great about traditional masculinity.
*tilts head* That's a really interesting point of view, given that the vidmaker is explicitly opposing toxic masculinity--or am I misreading you? (Very possible.) I don't necessarily think that I'd call the kinds of protective and supportive behaviors that these guys are taking part in "traditional" masculinity, although I'd definitely call them "masculinity." I don't think traditionality is part of it, particularly when so many toxically masculine values are very traditional. Chivalry, for example, places women on a pedestal in the same ways
That doesn't mean that these values and actions aren't part of some traditional concepts of what masculinity means, either! It's just that I don't think traditional is opposed to toxicity, if you feel me. I'm definitely a fan of finding new ways to celebrate masculinity and make it a positive set of things, but I'm not sure I agree that healthy masculinity is the same as traditional masculinity.
posted by sciatrix at 11:28 AM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
I showed the video to my daughters with my husband in the room and NO ONE got it. Kind of heartbroken, TBH.
posted by libraryhead at 6:00 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by libraryhead at 6:00 PM on March 8, 2019
So I only recognized a tiny fraction of the scenes (I just saw Wonder Woman, so I got those; I haven't watched more than a few eps of Parks and Rec but I at least knew who she was; I don't remember those eps of Steven Universe but it's SO recognizable and yay, yay, yay for Steven Universe any time any where) - but despite not recognizing much of it or knowing the backstories, I still found this more moving than I expected.
I really liked the shield sequence especially.
Thank you for sharing this, sciatrix. I'm positive I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.
posted by kristi at 6:38 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I really liked the shield sequence especially.
Thank you for sharing this, sciatrix. I'm positive I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.
posted by kristi at 6:38 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
*tilts head* That's a really interesting point of view, given that the vidmaker is explicitly opposing toxic masculinity--or am I misreading you?
No, you're not misreading me -- the things in this video are precisely the sorts of behavior that I was raised to view as noble, gracious, gentlemanly, supportive, and appropriately deferent toward women.
I just don't believe conceiving of the world with terms like "white/male privilege," "the patriarchy," or "toxic masculinity" is going to help people learn, grow, and develop healthy understanding of how men and women can work together. Instead, I think it's a trend that will tend to encourage people to divide up the world in stark terms, and provide an easy path toward rationalizing one bad actor's misdeeds as being because they are white, or male, and so on.
To me, this video just exemplifies traditional, conservative ideas of what it means to be a good man. So I think my view of "traditional masculinity" differs from yours -- mine's a positive view, and you may see "traditional masculinity" and "healthy masculinity" as being different things.
posted by phenylphenol at 6:34 AM on March 9, 2019
No, you're not misreading me -- the things in this video are precisely the sorts of behavior that I was raised to view as noble, gracious, gentlemanly, supportive, and appropriately deferent toward women.
I just don't believe conceiving of the world with terms like "white/male privilege," "the patriarchy," or "toxic masculinity" is going to help people learn, grow, and develop healthy understanding of how men and women can work together. Instead, I think it's a trend that will tend to encourage people to divide up the world in stark terms, and provide an easy path toward rationalizing one bad actor's misdeeds as being because they are white, or male, and so on.
To me, this video just exemplifies traditional, conservative ideas of what it means to be a good man. So I think my view of "traditional masculinity" differs from yours -- mine's a positive view, and you may see "traditional masculinity" and "healthy masculinity" as being different things.
posted by phenylphenol at 6:34 AM on March 9, 2019
I guess my suggestion for left-wing folks would be to start incorporating and building these values that we apparently share into "traditional masculinity," and speak about it that way. It'd be making sure that good, moral behavior is part of the shared tradition for our society.
Finding a mismatch between "traditional" and "healthy" seems like an opportunity to reestablish and improve our tradition; creating new concepts like "traditional/toxic" versus "healthy" just results in sowing discord. Assuming that "traditional" masculinity is some kind of evil or corrupt entity to be shunned and thrown out will just destroy the progress we've made toward cultivating a culture of respect.
That's why I'm a conservative -- I want to hold and maintain shared cultural values of what is right and good, so we continue to strive to be as excellent to each other as we can. I just reject the idea that previous generations weren't pursuing the same goal, and that the traditions we inherited were somehow oppressive or tyrannical.
Associating "toxic" with "traditional" I think is a very bad philosophical move -- it's just a misreading of what our very culture has valued, and is based on a suspicion that previous generations were participating in some kind of oppressive power game. I think they were solving problems as best they could, given their situation.
My opinion is that adopting worldviews based on power struggles just ends up being ultimately destructive -- that's why I don't even reason using "toxic masculinity" as a conceptual category. I just kinda see it as a nonentity, or just an expression of societal angst, or the inability to attribute bad behavior to individuals rather than ideals.
In a sense, it's just the notion that we're all in this together, and we should work to make things better by constantly elevating examples of what we all aspire to be as people.
posted by phenylphenol at 6:58 AM on March 9, 2019
Finding a mismatch between "traditional" and "healthy" seems like an opportunity to reestablish and improve our tradition; creating new concepts like "traditional/toxic" versus "healthy" just results in sowing discord. Assuming that "traditional" masculinity is some kind of evil or corrupt entity to be shunned and thrown out will just destroy the progress we've made toward cultivating a culture of respect.
That's why I'm a conservative -- I want to hold and maintain shared cultural values of what is right and good, so we continue to strive to be as excellent to each other as we can. I just reject the idea that previous generations weren't pursuing the same goal, and that the traditions we inherited were somehow oppressive or tyrannical.
Associating "toxic" with "traditional" I think is a very bad philosophical move -- it's just a misreading of what our very culture has valued, and is based on a suspicion that previous generations were participating in some kind of oppressive power game. I think they were solving problems as best they could, given their situation.
My opinion is that adopting worldviews based on power struggles just ends up being ultimately destructive -- that's why I don't even reason using "toxic masculinity" as a conceptual category. I just kinda see it as a nonentity, or just an expression of societal angst, or the inability to attribute bad behavior to individuals rather than ideals.
In a sense, it's just the notion that we're all in this together, and we should work to make things better by constantly elevating examples of what we all aspire to be as people.
posted by phenylphenol at 6:58 AM on March 9, 2019
This isn't quite the same, but it is a pretty great vid celebrating the women of the MCU (SLYT).
posted by suelac at 1:56 PM on March 10, 2019
posted by suelac at 1:56 PM on March 10, 2019
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posted by chrominance at 8:49 AM on March 7, 2019