• RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I find the obsession with being super manly that some types have to be highly suspicious. Seems they are either very insecure or seeking manliness out of a closeted gay urge. Because it’s just not the kind of thing you need to go get help with. Performant manliness is still a performance.

  • Matriks404@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I know at least few Russian-speaking people where I live (Kraków) who tried to convert me to their church. One Uber (or Bolt idk) driver, when I told him that I am interested in practicing Russian and Ukrainian wanted me to come to some church to read a Bible or something, and other time one friend of mine wanted me to come to (I think) Orthodox church to meet some women or something like that.

    I think I make an error, when I tell people I am agnostic, it’s like a sign for other people to try convert me, and I don’t really want to argue with them.

  • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    Very interesting, but also very lazy reporting. They didn’t ask Ukrainian-American Orthodox for example what they think. Ciril’s “holy war” screetches are insane, when Ukraine is also an Orthodox country.

    There are thousands upon thousands of Orthodox Christians in the US, yet the only non-Russian-aligned perspective in the whole article is this:

    Elissa Bjeletich Davis, a former Protestant who now belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church in Austin, is a Sunday school teacher and has her own podcast. She says many converts belong to “the anti-woke crowd” and sometimes have strange ideas about their new faith - especially those in the Russian Church. “They see it as a military, rigid, disciplinary, masculine, authoritarian religion,” Elissa says. “It’s kind of funny. It’s almost as if the old American Puritans and their craziness is resurfacing.”

    (RIP Elissa’s inbox btw)

    It’s annoying to see the crazies monopolize the report. This is also American Orthodoxy:

  • ulterno@programming.dev
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    6 days ago

    I originally thought gymjim and protein but…

    traditions dating back centuries

    So, slavery and rape?

  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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    7 days ago

    “Convert Theodore” looks a hell lot like the hat-tipping M’lady mister

    Almost all the converts I meet have opted to home-school their offspring, partly because they believe women should prioritise their families rather than their careers.

    Welp, that alone says a lot.

    Father Moses says Orthodoxy is “not masculine, it is just normal”, while “in the West everything has become very feminised”.

    Hahahaha, no. The only normal is humans wanting to form groups with like-minded people and, sometimes, making that group appear very different from another group, aka schismogenesis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schismogenesis

    Some - in America and other countries - see Russia as the last bastion of true Christianity

    Eeehh, given that the orthodox christians are likely closer to the root christianity than the western christians, that is not “too wrong” to assume, I guess. Then again, the orthodox did hunt down several “heretical” christians, some of which likely were “more christian” than them.

  • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I’ve heard that Russian Orthodox churches in the USA are not what they are in Russia, and are actually fine because of being removed from the hierarchy and kinda marginal, but, eh, manliness is anyway not what Christianity is generally about.

    And “traditions” are no more ancient than in a Catholic church they can find or an Assyrian or an Armenian one.

    Anyway, those stereotypes. Russians are very masculine to be a country whose economy mainly consists of selling oil and gas and other resources, some tech sector due to remnants of Soviet education and building nuclear stations. With prison population rivaling that of the USA. That’s an “/s”.

    EDIT: And the article author knows about Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox being different things, but misses the clue and thinks they are variations of the same. Eastern Orthodox and Catholic are united by being, as it’s sometimes called, Chalcedonean Christianity. Oriental Orthodox is all that split at that point, but not earlier.

  • Taco2112@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I feel bad for the men that get indoctrinated by this guy. Just like a lot of people that get taken in by religion, these people are looking for some understanding or change that really can only come from within but the church is promising that religion is the only way.

    These men don’t understand that there is no black and white/ universal version of “manliness”. We all have to decide for ourselves what “being a man” means.

    I go with a simple definition: as someone who was born a man and continues to identify as a man, my feeling is that, anything I do is “manly” because I am a man. Doesn’t matter if it’s sewing, hunting, or eating soup (which the preacher in the article seems to think is not manly)

      • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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        8 days ago

        And also being so confident, you don’t need another man to tell you you’re a big strong masculine man.

        • MangoCats@feddit.it
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          8 days ago

          In college a woman remarked “I don’t know many men manly enough to wear a pink shirt.”

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            7 days ago

            In my opinion, as a man, feminism is for men. Feminism, at its core, is saying that strict gender roles are made up, and anyone is capable of being anyone. Men had a lot of freedom to do this already, though obviously a lot of things weren’t allowed, like homosexuality, playing with other gendered clothing, or “queerness” in general as it used to be called.

            A proper understanding of feminism I think would lead us all to recognizing we are free from the shackles of tradition, though the word makes a lot of people think it’s only helping women, at the expense of men.

            • hypnicjerk@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              this is a nice way to look at it - but feminism isn’t just a vague ideology, it’s also a social movement that is designed for women and populated by women. men are at best allies in that space, and at worst viewed as the enemy, othered, and excluded.

              i’ll gladly id as a feminist ideologically but i’m not foolish enough to think i’d be welcomed with open arms at a feminist rally. tolerated? sure. but not part of the group.

              • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                7 days ago

                I don’t think you’re correct, and I’ve felt welcomed around feminists (though I’ve never been in explicit feminist spaces). Even if you are though, it doesn’t detract from my point. The goals of feminism help men too. If followed to completion, it removes gender roles from being strictly necessary. It allows people to be what they want.

                Feminism is part of a larger movement, hence intersectional feminism. Even that though is part of a larger movement of liberalizing society to accept all people for who they are. Yes, there are also some groups who use feminism to exclude other people (TERFs, for example), but usually if people agree women should be allowed in roles normally reserved for men then gender norms aren’t real and are necessarily oppressive, for everyone.

                • hypnicjerk@lemmy.world
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                  7 days ago

                  nothing that you’ve said here contradicts my point and you’re demonstrating a profound misunderstanding of intersectionalism.

              • tamman2000@lemm.ee
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                7 days ago

                I’ve been welcomed in feminist spaces. Don’t try to take center stage or make it about you and you’ll be fine in the vast majority of them.

                • hypnicjerk@lemmy.world
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                  7 days ago

                  if you truly believe that, it says more about your own social awareness than it does about the feminist movement.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        I don’t know if I like soup. The only soup I ever had was cambells, and it was awful. But then everybody tells me that cambells is the bottom of the barrel scum of the soup world.

        So maybe I just don’t like cambells.

        • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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          7 days ago

          Hey, you’re like me. I HATED soup for decades. Can soup BS was disgusting. Soup on the side of my burger, gross.

          Then I went to a real soup place. Like all they did was soup. Like professional level soup that’s $8 a cup or $12 a bowl.

          My god - it was incredible. I now understand the Soup Nazi bit of why anybody would tolerate that behavior.

          I went from clean shaven anti-souper to a god damn soup coke fiend.

        • Soggy@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          Campbell’s classic chicken noodle hits different when you’re recovering from a bout of norovirus.

          But generally yes, canned soup is pretty bad. There’s a ton of soups across most global cuisines, so many so that it’s borderline unbelievable that you’ve never tried a single one.

          • futatorius@lemm.ee
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            7 days ago

            And soup is so easy to make from scratch, it seems feeble to open a can. But yeah, OK, if you’re sick, that’s another thing.

    • Jay@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      Pretty much how I see it. Being “a man” is being comfortable with who you are and not being scared about what others think. Putting a dress on and having “Tea” with your kids during playtime is just as manly as playing football. (And looks hilarious when you’re a 6 ft tall biker looking dude with a beard and hairy legs like me.)

    • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Reminds me of a scene in the Lone Wolf and Cub comic I read when I was younger.

      I don’t remember all the details, but there’s a panel where the two most dangerous samurai in all of feudal Japan are camping out before a fight, and some rando is astonished that these high bred, noble, elite warriors are cooking their own rice. One of the two rips into him about self-sufficiency and how there aren’t always servants to do your cooking for you, and what kind of warrior would just starve when he has no servants around?

      • SnarkoPolo@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        And what does the article say? Eating soup isn’t manly? WTF? I’d like to hear his rationale for that one, but I’d probably lose a couple of IQ points reading it.

        • Fluffy Kitty Cat@slrpnk.net
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          8 days ago

          Toxic masculinity is full of shaming men for random things that are arbitrarily defined as not manly. Nothing is more dangerous for a Man than not conforming to masculine gender norms

          • futatorius@lemm.ee
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            7 days ago

            When I was younger, I was thin, blond, green-eyed and freckled. In short, a bit of a twink. I didn’t present as macho, but grew up in a rough neighborhood and when I went to college, could take down any “manly” frat-boy bullies who thought they could push me around.

            Now I’m much older, also much bigger, look like an extra in a biker movie, but am still the same guy I was back then, and I’m never on the side of 'roid-raging morons or idiot red-pillers. When they think I’m one of them and start chatting shit, I shut it down fast. Even when they’re hormone-stuffed human cauliflowers, they’re soft. I’m not going to turn my back on my gay, lesbian and trans friends just because they make you insecure. You’re the one with the wrong values and self-loathing. Work on that if you want to feel better about yourself.

        • Fluffy Kitty Cat@slrpnk.net
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          7 days ago

          This kind of insecurity is intentionally cultivated for the purpose of being exploited. If you can make a man afraid of whatever kind of food you name by declaring it unmanly you can control him.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
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        7 days ago

        Yeah, seriously. I’ve been all over Eastern Europe and can confidently say that Slavs make some of the best soup I’ve had anywhere. And if I’ve turned gay, I haven’t realized it yet.

    • Fluffy Kitty Cat@slrpnk.net
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      8 days ago

      I think men are going to have to define foe themselves what secure masculinity looks like and how to achieve it.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
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        7 days ago

        Not worrying about it has been a solution that has worked well for me. Having a close friend who’s lesbian helped a lot too. She taught me a lot about being true to one’s self, and I love her for it. In the next life, if she’s into men or I’m a woman, we’ll get together. In this life, we don’t have sex, but there are plenty of other ways to show love for someone. She’s my sister from another mother.

    • bassad@jlai.lu
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      7 days ago

      Church is (almost) free therapy though, problem is that some church leaders want to use believers for their own benefit

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Probably would also talk hours with amazingly attractive women while in therapy too

      I mean, there are ethical boundaries, but already more than a guy trying to find strength outside likely has