On Being a Man

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
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No offer in exchange for my manhood could ever entice me, and I mean that in several senses simultaneously. My life feels to me as borderline unremarkable but for a handful of unique stories. But given the RNG of coming into being, as a base human stat I am pleased to be a man. As far as lives seem to me, I am overall content with my own considering the world at large. Despite what I have been subjected to for my immutable characteristics, I would never fantasize of being a woman or another race or culture any more than I would of being taller, wealthier, or more powerful. What good are such fantasies?

Perhaps man was better off a beast. What gift of man has been so great itā€™s value exceeds all destruction it has wrought? What ā€œmodern progressā€ can be presented as unarguably beneficial to the world? What upholds your core beliefs upon which you base your behavior? But the present system has itā€™s appeals in comfort, luxury, and convenience. There are many definitive benefits to maintaining the status quo. But some of the foundational elements of society grate on my soul.

Cut a penis, itā€™s a circumcision. Cut in the vicinity of the vagina and it is genital mutilation. This blows my mind. The astonishing lack of curiosity and dissonance of thought looks crippling to me. Like crying for disability income while holding your hands over your eyes and calling yourself blind. Could it be that for this one, exposure to light is painful? But to react appropriately to their delusions is a state offense.

So I have my thoughts, opinions, and perspectives. I see from those in power this must be threatening, as my logical deviations from the narratives get lumped in with those targeted for destruction by the people doing the most evil things. And yet for the categories so many would impose upon me at first sight, none would ever understand. Likely none would ever so much as desire to, so that makes sense.

But life isnā€™t fair. And knowing that, I count my blessings. I have much to be grateful for. I am content with my life and generally fulfilled. Iā€™ve found what I want in life and Iā€™m content to ride it out to the end, however it may go. And that is why I like being a man. The philosophy Iā€™ve compiled from observation, experience, and contemplation would be fundamentally altered if I lived as a woman. The advantages I perceive women to generally possess at present could never possibly appeal to me as replacements for what I like about being a man, in my position, with my mind and memory and lived experience.

It could always be worse. I wouldnā€™t seek to know any better. Iā€™m happy enough as I am. So Iā€™ll enjoy today while I still can and deal with tomorrow when it comes. When has rushing ever paid off?

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How ironic. I was just thinking earlier that a good way to deter child rape would be to cut off all of the rapistsā€™ dicks and like string them up into some sort of wreath and 3-D print copies of that thing and hang that wreath from like an electric wire (like they do with shoes) in every neighborhood where child rape occurredā€¦ as a warning signal that it better not ever happen again if they donā€™t want that to happen to them.

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You seem happy for working reasons. Congratulations.
By the way, vaginal circumcision is meant to prevent sexual pleasure as I understand it, phallic circumcision is not.

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I detest any effort to rationalize barbaric violence against the innocent. I could not care less the intent behind someone amputating part of my penis, I would never have consented. But being born a male where I was, I had no bodily autonomy to speak of and my desire to maintain my flesh was not considered before it was removed from me.

The people who in any way justify this brutality display a disgusting ignorance of basic anatomy and a reprehensible disregard for a manā€™s right to have his genitals intact.

I donā€™t care what your deity or your doctor says, I am livid for being mutilated upon birth and I despise all manner of such dishonest thinking that leads to the kind of justifications as in this one example. Itā€™s the kind of compartmentalization that has founded all manner of human abuses through time.

And thatā€™s all it was, a single example of the kind of thoughtless beliefs upon which people operate while yet praising their own virtue. Orwell called it ā€œdoublethink;ā€ maintaining contradictory beliefs while espousing all to be true. Denial is a prerequisite for living this way, and that mixes with honesty like oil with water.

Hence the rampant cognitive dissonance that permits as common the thought that ā€œyou can cut a penis, but donā€™t you dare cut anything off a baby girl!ā€ It is a poignant example of the kind of widespread insanity that leads to the myriad depravities abundant in the world today.

But with lies enforced, the truth is a great offense. Honesty is rejected in favor of sensation. Many swallow poison for perceived benefit, and not just alcohol. But it is true that there can be profound pain in thought, so the appeal of what numbs it is obvious. But if unable to think, how could one possibly consider the cost before itā€™s too late?

But, then, it seems to me it was already too late, long before I got here. So I am content to mitigate the suffering philosophically, to exercise my mind and scale the walls of conventional thought to see what is holding them up. Itā€™s been fascinating, but also a tremendous relief.

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Yeah, thatā€™s a pretty solid point. I was always stuck on the whole thing about not asking to be born in the first place. That was my biggest bomb, the one that cancels all moral obligations to anything; how can one be expected to observe rules and conditions about x when he is not in agreement about the nature of x, or even that he ought to be made to follow them without being asked first.

Born without being consulted and thrown into a world that you think is shit (and may be right) and then criminalized when you donā€™t follow the rules.

On the eighth day god realized (one of) his fatal mistake when he was in the cigar room relaxing. He had forgotten to ask the players before he created them and put them in the game. Thatā€™s a deal breaker right out the gate.

And imagine being superior in many ways to the people and their world of shit that you were thrown into. The suffering and frustration would be tremendous. That burning impotence. Wanting to change the world or get out of it, but unable to do neither.

Add to all this that they cut your weenie up the second you arrive and bro, you got some serious shit going on. They got me but i was too young to protest. Still i would have liked to make the decision myself when i was old enough to know what was going on. Sure, Iā€™d prolly get circumcised if the procedure could be made painless. Especially in my line of work where you sweat a lot. A circumcised johnson is cleaner.

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You must think lady parts are filthy. Lop them labia to keep her clean, right?

I donā€™t mean to be rude, but you kind of agreed and then completely proved my point by parroting the ā€œmutilated dicks are more sanitaryā€ fallacy. If a person can keep an armpit clean, they can keep their genitals clean, too.

But every argument in favor of male genital mutilation is so ridiculous. There is literally no good reason for it. Even phimosis can be resolved without surgery. Again, not the focus of this post, just a prime example of the kind of mindless issues that plague sentience.

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Oh absolutely. A femaleā€™s danger zone is a hotbed of bacteria and teeming with tiny monsters. But itā€™s not something we can correct because we didnā€™t design the body plan. God did. What we can do is autocorrect for Godā€™s mistake and make sure she takes a shower often.

Weā€™d not ever want to find ourselves having to ask our girlfriends this question.

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Good thing God has us around to clean up after Him, I guess.

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Birth status changes everything. Some are born predators, some are born prey. But to confuse the two can be a fatal mistake, especially if you donā€™t know your own status to begin with. Otherwise, to think oneself superior to peers is an appallingly egotistical fantasy rife with delusions of grandeur.

The world is what it is but I didnā€™t say it was shit. Even if it were and I did wish to change it, I am not impotent. If I wanted out, countless exit strategies are readily available.

Iā€™m not bitter over being cut any more than I am for being born. My consent is irrelevant in more ways than not and refusing to accept that would be to my detriment. To suggest that I should have something akin to divine control over our shared reality is foolish, as the accompanying burden of responsibility would likely become unbearable quickly.

But there is power in virtue and principle. Not the kind of power that resists accountability but rather a kind that embraces it. You cannot see a hero before his actions identify him. But when we can identify people by their actions and simply choose not to, virtue is reduced to a mere signal and a principle is nothing more than a school administrator.

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ā€œBut to confuse the two can be a fatal mistake, especially if you donā€™t know your own status to begin with.ā€

Ah, but isnā€™t that ā€˜working outā€™ part of the very process? The weak, confusing themselves for the strong, make this fatal mistake all the timeā€¦ but this canā€™t be done until itā€™s done! Some even go from weak to strong when they try itā€¦ so that ā€˜born into casteā€™ nonsense is just that.

Ergo, do confuse yourself for the strong, and nature will sort out who is who. But donā€™t sit idly by in the shadow of this dangerous idea of ā€˜equalityā€™ and do nothing as the christian, the buddha, and the Ecmanduean pacifist would have it.

You gotta figure; if there is going to be superior people, it better be me.

Any other approach is doomed to failure because if you donā€™t go at it like that, some superior bastard is gonna try and get you before you get him.

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Think Ayn Rand to the second power. Like Stirner, for instance. Thatā€™s where social philosophy begins, finally free of Platonism and laid bare before man, wretched as he is, the egoist.

Once you accept what man is, you can start work on em. But you canā€™t fix em until you know what his problems are. And if you think his problems are things that are not problems (which accounts for three quarters of Platoā€™s nonsense) then youā€™re wasting time doing that philosophy crap that hasnā€™t made any progress in two thousand years.

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Deception has twisted the very process of ā€˜working it out,ā€™ as I see it. Go tell India that ā€˜born into casteā€™ is nonsense. Tell the field mouse to be as strong as he can and let ā€˜nature sort it out.ā€™

And who said anything about equality? From where do you dredge up religion into this discussion, anyway?

In my perception, virtue exists independently of religion, as the latter only serves to explain the former to appease the zealous of faith.

I donā€™t have to figure as you propose, as it seems we differ definitionally in regard to success and failure. Who has achieved such within themselves that they could hope to fix anyone else? But you sound quite sure of yourself and the names you drop, so Iā€™ll leave you to it.

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ā€œespecially if you donā€™t know your own statusā€

I was only reacting to that statement, really. It felt like suggesting one should regard themselves as their culture, custom, nation, race, etc. regards them. ā€˜Staying in ones placeā€™, as it were. India, indeed. Yeah my point was only ā€œfuck thatā€, not that you were necessarily wrong about anything.

ā€˜Statusā€™ is a spook, and there is nothing that obtains it but brute force in taking and holding property (and getting power and celebrity as a result). Anybody can do that with a big enough gun. Prince or pleb, the same rule applies.

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Well said, I get you.

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Creative genius can and does obtain status without a gun.

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Hmmā€¦

Interesting.

From an art perspective non circumcised penises are most attractive when the erection occurs.

Circumcised penises always look attractive.

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Yeah, if i was a chick, i wouldnā€™t like an uncircumcised unit. They look too much like an alien creature. Like a worm emerging out of a protective skin or like one of those sandworms in Dune. I wouldnā€™t want something that looked like that in any my sexy places.

A circumcised unit just looks cooler, too, because you get the full profile of the anatomical parts that create its proportion and symmetry.

The uncircumcised johnson is suspicious. Youā€™re expecting a worm to suddenly lunge out at you or something. Seriously, name an animal that protrudes out of an external membrane that wouldnā€™t bite your ass if it had a chance. Thatā€™s why we have an instinctual fear of the uncircumcised unit. For eighty thousand years weā€™ve been trying to avoid creatures like that.

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Itā€™s tragic how flippantly you all remark on such a somber topic as infant genital mutilation. I doubt one of you will so much as glance into the reality of the situation. Do any of you know the structures or functions of the amputated male prepuce? Do you understand the impact of keratinization on the exposed glans?

But I have come to associate such behaviors with a preference for popularized ignorance. Iā€™m not sure the physiological facts would even register with most, or they would be massively downplayed so the learner can continue to reject the horrific truth of their own mutilation or those they imposed on their sons.

Never mind that my chosen example led to responses derailing my intended course, you all only proved my point. But the point is lost on a crowd marking the wrong score cards altogether.

Good luck to you all.

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Well, i thought i had already voted. Maybe i forgot. I vote against infant genital mutilation. I say a procedure should be made available for adults (whatever that age is in that country), if they decide later they wanna skin 'em back.

The only thing a doc should be cuttinā€™ on is the umbilical cord. Everything else stays on behalf of the bodily owner, for while indeed we might not step shyly back from anotherā€™s property, we draw the line at taking possession of and holding proprietorship over anotherā€™s foreskin without the consent of the original owner of the foreskin, i.e., the young lad being just born with it.