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Why men need to master “psychological androgyny” if they want a creative 2015

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Are you a man? Do you want to tap into your creative side in 2015? Then you need to think like a woman! (If you’re a woman the opposite applies).

The pioneering psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi made a fascinating discovery about masculinity while researching his book Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention. Described by the Brain Pickings website as “one of the most important, insightful, and influential books on creativity ever written”— the book highlights how masculinity and femininity are both at play in the creative mind as the result of a “predisposition to psychological androgyny”.

Csikszentmihalyi explains:

“In all cultures, men are brought up to be “masculine” and to disregard and repress those aspects of their temperament that the culture regards as “feminine,” whereas women are expected to do the opposite.

“Creative individuals to a certain extent escape this rigid gender role stereotyping. When tests of masculinity/femininity are given to young people, over and over one finds that creative and talented girls are more dominant and tough than other girls, and creative boys are more sensitive and less aggressive than their male peers”

You don’t have to be gay to access your feminine strengths 

This tendency to show traits more generally associated with the opposite sex is not linked to sexuality but to our masculinity/femininity. A man can have “feminine” strengths (and a woman can have “masculine” strengths) without being gay or bisexual.

“Psychological androgyny a much wider concept” explains the psychologist “referring to a person’s ability to be at the same time aggressive and nurturant, sensitive and rigid, dominant and submissive, regardless of gender

“A psychologically androgynous person in effect doubles his or her repertoire of responses and can interact with the world in terms of a much richer and varied spectrum of opportunities. It is not surprising that creative individuals are more likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other one, too.”

The findings were based on extensive interviews with nearly 100 individuals from various fields who were recognised for their creative thinking.

Creative men are connected to family and environment 

“It was obvious that the women artists and scientists tended to be much more assertive, self-confident, and openly aggressive than women are generally brought up to be in our society,” says Csikszentmihalyi.

“Perhaps the most noticeable evidence for the “femininity” of the men in the sample was their great preoccupation with their family and their sensitivity to subtle aspects of the environment that other men are inclined to dismiss as unimportant.

“But despite having these traits that are not usual to their gender, they retained the usual gender-specific traits as well.”

—Photo Credit: Flickr/Amanda Hirsch

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Why work on men’s issues?

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Why work on men’s issues? The most extraordinary thing about this subject is that we should have to ask this question at all, says clinical psychologist Martin Seager.

— This is article #26 in our series of #100Voices4Men and boys 

All human beings have a gender. It is one of the great defining features of human identity and behaviour from the dawn of our species. Gender is universal across all cultures. Gender inevitably relates to our biological sex and is rooted in our evolution. If we are truly interested in humanity then we must be passionately inclusive about all aspects of human nature and how they relate to each other. If we don’t start to understand men and masculinity better therefore, then we will all lose out as a human family.

The striking thing for me is that even though I am a practising clinical psychologist and adult psychotherapist who has worked with men and women in the NHS and elsewhere for many years, it still took me until I was well into my forties before I saw past the enormous barriers and prejudices that were blinding me like everyone else in society to the fact that men too are gendered beings.

‘There are deep rules about masculinity’

This wasn’t just about Feminism which has always been an important and necessary reaction to social and political inequalities facing women, even though Feminism clearly makes it harder to speak up for men because it can sound like you are defending privilege. It is also about masculinity itself.

Being a man means that you don’t seek help, speak out or draw attention to your needs and vulnerabilities. This is so much deeper than a social stereotype or a cultural issue. This is something that transcends culture and is much deeper within the gendered heritage of the human condition.

There are clearly deep rules about masculinity and femininity which are universal. The most obvious femininity rule is the glamour rule which hasn’t changed since the beginnings of known civilization and probably beyond. In our modern world there is no sign that the glamour rule is disappearing due to cultural influences. If anything, there is even more pressure on our young girls these days to be glamorous. These rules weren’t invented by men or women but have evolved collectively as a core part of human sexuality and gender identity in our species.

‘We are in this together’

The time has surely come therefore to recognise that gender is not just an equality issue but a diversity issue. Men and women are different and their differences need to be honoured and respected just like other human differences. Our obsession with equality has made us blind to important and valuable gender differences.

However, even if inequality is our chosen narrative, then it is also high time that we drew attention also to the inequalities faced by the male gender in terms of, for example, physical and mental health, suicide, death by violence and overall life expectancy, drug addiction, dangerous working conditions, homelessness, child custody and educational performance.

As our troops pull out of Afghanistan, one of the legacies is that little girls in that country have now a much better chance of being educated thanks to the large number of predominantly male soldiers who died. There is no battle of the sexes. We are in this human story together. The most ancient masculinity rule is that of the fighter and protector. We are also honouring the dead of two world wars and a mature society that cares about gender will honour the gender of the vast majority of those who died for our collective freedom.

Photo: Flickr/taberandrew

You can find all of the #100Voices4Men articles that will be published in the run up to International Men’s Day 2014 by clicking on this link—#100Voices4Men—and follow the discussion on twitter by searching for #100Voices4Men.

The views expressed in these articles are not necessarily the views of insideMAN editorial team. Whether you agree with the views expressed in this article or not we invite you to take take part in this important discussion, our only request is that you express yourself in a way that ensures everyone’s voice can be heard.

You can join the #100Voices4Men discussion by commenting below; by following us on Twitter @insideMANmag and Facebook or by emailing insideMANeditor@gmail.com. 

It’s time to break the ancient taboo of male vulnerability

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Men can be vulnerable if only we allow them to be says the counsellor and relationship coach Antony Sammeroff.

—This is article #20 in our series of #100Voices4Men and boys 

There is an ancient taboo on a man showing his vulnerability. This is perhaps the product of a time when the strict gender role for women was to raise children and make home, while it was the assumed responsibility of a man to provide resources and protection.

In this time a man who did not want to work a dangerous job could not have provided the first, and a man who did not want to fight a war could not provide the second. And so, every society that succeeded only succeeded by shaming men who heeded their own sense of vulnerability. Emotions such as anger and pride which could be applied to dominance may have been permitted, but fear, sadness, grief, guilt, shame and anxiety were best ignored.

It is a little known fact that little boys receive more physical punishment than little girls, and studies correlate frequency of physical punishment to the rate of domestic violence. Baby boys are, on average, allowed to cry for longer without being comforted . As toddlers they are told that “big boys don’t cry”, and as adolescents they are told to “man up and take it.”

The pattern is then bolstered by the man’s stereotypical gender role at work. Men succeed in gaining promotions by outcompeting other men. A lawyerwho says to the defence counsel ‘that’s a good point we hadn’t considered, can my client and I have a moment to discuss that?’ will make a terrible lawyer, but a wonderful partner! A man who hones the skill of interrupting and undermining his opponent excels in the courtroom and the office, but if he brings these antisocial disciplines home to verbally abuse his wife and undermine the confidence of his children he will make a terrible husband.

We need to teach men to care for themselves first

When we diminish a man’s capacity for self-empathy we diminish his capacity to empathise with others. Research shows that boys, on average, tend to be more transactional than girls, meaning that they “act out” what has been done to them more often than girls who are more likely to “act it in” on themselves.

The prison psychologist, James Gillian (husband of the famous feminist Carol Gillian) found in his work with some of the most violent men in America that what often motivated them to violence was an idea they internalized from their environment that to be a man meant to dominate in order to gain respect. Prisoners said to him things like “James, I never felt so much respect in my life as when I had a gun in my hand.” Part of rehabilitating these criminals was to break down and recreate their own imagination of what manhood meant to them.

In my own work as a counsellor and relationship coach I am faced with the pain of men who feel that even admitting they have a struggle, such as with attracting a woman, is humiliating because according to the standards they have inherited from their upbringing, it is an admission of their failure as a man. If it’s humiliating to even admit you have a problem, how do you go about getting help? No wonder the majority of people who go to counselling or therapy are women.

Acknowledging men’s pain does not diminish women’s pain

It does not help the cause of mutual understanding when any discussion of men’s issues are too often met with generic responses such as a sarcastic “poor men” or a “yeah, but women have it worse.” How is this to further the cause of men learning to discuss their grievances openly and honestly and express their emotions? Who would tell a sexual assault victim that a rape victim had it worse? The pain of one sex does not negate or diminish the pain of another and the taboo on male vulnerability has to go! It is only through mutual understanding of the challenges that face each sex that we can build a more just order.

All men’s issues eventually become women’s issues because the extent to which men feel understood is likely to reflect the extent to which they are willing to be challenged and offer the same understanding to women. Of course the reverse is also true.

While Women’s Studies has rightly critiqued the traditional roles which women were expected to fulfil with a view to expanding their options and opportunities many have claimed that history is men’s studies. In fact all that history does for a man is to reinforce his traditional role as a performance machine. The greatest of men, in the historic view, is he who “heroically” risks his life in war, or has the privilege of sending other men to kill and die for their nation state.

Now is the time to critique the traditional role of the male as an emotionless automaton built to provide and compete. The ultimate beneficiaries will be our children who will have better fathers and happier mothers who will model the skills necessary for them to form rich, open and honest relationships, and the tools to forge new workplaces based on mutual empathy rather than one-upmanship and competition.

—Picture credit:Flickr/Jason Roberts

Antony Sammeroff is a relationship coach and counsellor living in Edinburgh, Scotland , where he runs workshops to help people create fulfilling relationships by improving the way they communicate with themselves and others. Antony answers questions and posts videos on improving relationship and communication skills on his new youtube channel Enrich Your Life

He also interviews parenting experts for The Progressive Parent youtube channel and his website can be found at www.enrichyourlife.co. Antony offers elationship coaching internationally over skype.

You can find all of the #100Voices4Men articles that will be published in the run up to International Men’s Day 2014 by clicking on this link—#100Voices4Men—and follow the discussion on twitter by searching for #100Voices4Men.

The views expressed in these articles are not the views of insideMAN editorial team. Whether you agree with the views expressed in this article or not we invite you to take take part in this important discussion, our only request is that you express yourself in a way that ensures everyone’s voice can be heard.

You can join the #100Voices4Men discussion by commenting below; by following us on Twitter @insideMANmag and Facebook or by emailing insideMANeditor@gmail.com. 

Why would a female academic want to study masculinity?

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When it comes to academia, the study of gender has tended to mean the study of women. But there are a growing number of academics who realise that men’s issues and experiences are just as complex and in need of exploration as women’s. One of these is insideMAN reader and University of Derby psychology tutor, Debbie Earnshaw. We asked her why as a female academic, she decided to study men.

Here’s a part of a genuine conversation that I had with two sixth form students:

Student 1 (male): “But you’re a girl.”

Me: “I’m a female yes…and?”

Student 2 (female): “So why are you looking at this? It’s got nothing to do with you!”

Me: “Just because I’m female doesn’t mean I can’t research males and masculinity.”

Student 1: “But what’s the point? You don’t know anything about guys, or masculinity, you’re not one of us.”

‘I got a little fed up of just hearing about women’

I’ve encountered this a lot, and it is a question put forward to me by the editors of InsideMAN as well as numerous other occasions so I’ve decided to answer it. I’m asked by both binary genders why I’m researching masculinity/male psychology when I am a female. What could I possibly bring to the field? Well, for starters, in all honesty, during my undergraduate degree I got a little fed up of just hearing about women in my Gender module.

We had two weeks of ‘male’ psychology, which concentrated on superheroes for one week, and masculine ideals for the next week. And that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to hear about THEIR life. Do they feel the same sense of shame or pressure about their bodies? Do they feel the same pressure to have families? Do they realise that they’re the ‘standard’ set in a discipline that is to encompass ALL human behaviour? Do they realise they have a voice too?

I realised that I wanted to find their strengths and their weaknesses and research them. I want to know what makes them different to themselves as well as other genders. I want to demonstrate that men still have their problems and shouldn’t be hidden away. I wanted to read a piece of a research that didn’t investigate women, and use a man as standard to be set against. That’s wrong for the women and wrong for the men. It is in no way fair.

‘Grow a pair’

I am a feminist. Not a ‘feminazi’, nor a man-hating individual, but someone who wants equality for all genders.

And you know what, being one has actually opened my eyes. I now see that the way women are portrayed is also hurtful to men. I see that the same sense of social order that has oppressed women also oppresses men, albeit sometimes in different ways. It’s still there. The issue that each gender has does affect each other.

As a feminist I do not want a man to be seen as the ‘bumbling dad’ in adverts, or viewed with suspicion because you happen to be at a play park with your own child. I don’t want men to lose custody of their children because the law assumes women are the better caregivers. I don’t want men to be ridiculed for having depression or suicidal thoughts because they’re seen as ‘weaknesses’ and told to ‘grow a pair’ or ‘stop being such a girl’.

As a female, I won’t even suggest that I understand men completely. I want to begin to understand your processes, your thoughts and your behaviours, and show people that men have problems too and we shouldn’t ignore them. I want to show them your individuality.

Some males might not be happy with that, but helping to have your voice heard to a different set of individuals surely can’t be all that bad, can it?

By Debbie Earnshaw

What do you think? Are there some subjects — like gender — that require lived experience to fully understand? Or are there special insights that one gender can bring to studying the other?

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Is your masculinity a product of nature or nurture?

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Photo courtesy: sdminor81

What is it that makes a man masculine asks Glen Poole?

Last week we explored the Seven Stages of Masculinity that men experience at different stages of life and history. But what creates these different stages of masculinity? Is it good old mother nature or the nurture of the “man’s world” we live in?

If you view masculinity from an integral perspective then there a four distinct forces that shape your masculinity:

  • Your biology
  • Your psychology
  • The cultures you inhabit
  • The society you live in

These four distinct forces interact at every stage of masculinity to shape your experience of being a man. In simple terms biology and psychology represent the forces of nature while society and culture represent the forces of nurture. The importance your place on each of these four forces will be governed by the side you take in the nature vs nurture debate? Or maybe you don’t take sides, maybe you believe that masculinity is a bio-psycho-socio-cultural construct…….!?

THE BIOLOGY OF MASCULINITY

Maleness is formed at a biological level in the XY sex chromosomes found in every cell of our bodies. The small proportion of men born with an XXY chromosome are less masculine in a variety of ways—they have less testosterone, smaller testes, less public hair, less facial hair, a lower sex drive, are less muscular, may have man boobs and can be shy and lack confidence in childhood.

By contrast, children with the condition congenital adrenal hyperplasia are exposed to higher levels of male sex hormones such as testosterone. Boys with the condition can enter puberty early leading to increased body hair and an enlarged penis at an early age, while girls with the condition may have unusual looking genitalia (such as an enlarged clitoris) and a tendency towards more masculine behaviours such as a preference for playing with “boys’ toys”.

The impact of biological factors like chromosomes and hormones on our masculinity has been observed by researchers studying the journals of men undergoing testosterone replacement. What they discovered was that as men’s testosterone levels rose they used fewer words in their journals and wrote less about people and more about objects.

The apparent masculine interest in objects, more than people, has also been observed at a neurological level. According to Simon Baron-Cohen’s Empathizing-Systemizing (E-S) Theory the female brain is more often hard-wired for empathy while the male brain is more often hard-wired for understanding and building systems.

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINITY

The nature of masculinity changes over time in parallel with the common social systems that define a culture or historical era. In the agricultural age, for example, the invention of the plough revolutionized food production. The plough relied heavily on male upper body strength and required men to work away from their family while women stayed close to home. To this day the hard-working dad and the stay-at-home are still recognized as archetypal masculine and feminine roles.

As countries evolve from agrarian to industrial to post-industrial systems of economic production, the nature of masculinity and femininity also evolves. In modern industrial nations, women can reach the top of their field by adopting masculine traits. As post-modern, post-industrial nations emerge, feminine skills become more valued as we explored in our post: 10 reasons more male graduates end up jobless.

It is no coincidence that the UK’s modernist, industrial Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was considered to be the “best man” in her Government while the U.S.A.’s post-modernist, post-industrial leader, Barack Obama, has been repeatedly described as the country’s first female president.

The laws that govern sex and gender are also part of the social systems that shape our masculinity. In countries where men and women have generous and equal parental leave rights, women earn more and men do more childcare.

Is this because the men in these countries are more feminine, nurturing and caring naturally, or is their masculinity being nurtured in a new direction by the country’s parental leave laws?

THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINITY

The values and beliefs of the communities we are born into play a huge role in defining our masculinity. Last week we talked about the Seven Types of Masculinity. These stages can be observed at a collective level as cultures progress through seven distinct stages of development as follows:

  • Cavemen and Cavewomen
  • Tribes
  • Warriors
  • Rules and Roles
  • Explorers
  • Peacemakers
  • Integral Men and Women

Each stage brings a new set of values and beliefs. For traditional “rules and roles” cultures, social order is preserved by men and women conforming to set norms that restrict expressions of masculinity and femininity within limited confines. In simple terms men (and their masculinity) rule the public realm and women (and their femininity) rule the private realm.

At the “explorer” stage of cultural evolution women are usually granted equal rights and equal opportunities with men in the public realm. As high-flying women like Margaret Thatcher show, women who learn to play by masculine rules can reach the very top, but for most women equality of outcome is not possible.

Explorer societies tend to be competitive and individualistic and are divided into the “haves” and the “have nots”. When “peacemaker” societies emerge, they have a strong focus on the “have nots” and the pursuit of equal outcomes. The public realm becomes increasingly less masculine (as do men and boys) and the social shift towards a post-industrial economy sees a rise in the value of feminine qualities like empathy. The “peacemaker” wave of cultural evolution also sees men having a greater role in the private realm with the emergence of the “househusband” and the “stay-at-home-dad”.

The dominant values and norms of the cultures we live in have a strong influence on our masculinity. It’s hard to imagine young men today, who are mostly at the explorer and peacemaker stages of masculinity, accepting mass conscription in the way millions of men did in 1914-1918, when most men and women were operating at the “rules and roles” stage of their masculinity and femininity.

Similarly, in peacemaker Scandanavian countries it has become the norm for men to share in the feminine, nurturing role of raising children and women to share in the masculine, provider role of providing a household income. It’s difficult to image men and women in 1914 sharing the roles of nurturer and provider. Of course many women did take on “men’s work” at home while men went to war, but when those men returned, men and women generally returned to their distinct nurturer and provider roles.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MASCULINITY

The psychology of masculinity is perhaps the most interesting aspect to explore as it is in our own psychological world that we experience being a man, being manly and being masculine. Our psychological world is where our gender identity is formed and where we personally experience the influence that biology, society and culture have in shaping our masculinity.

Some biological determinists see gender differences in society as being the result of men’s and women’s psychological preferences and choices. For social and cultural determinists, the choices and preferences men and women express at the micro level are the result of coercion at a macro level. For example, If we don’t give fathers equal rights and opportunities as parents through laws and policies at a macro level, then this will effect the preferences and choices that individual fathers make at the micro level.

So is our masculinity shaped entirely from the outside by the social norms and cultural values that surround us? Or is it our nature that makes us masculine with our male hormones and choromosomes and neuro-biology simply triggering characteristics that have evolved over millennia and are now deeply embedded in the male psyche?

According to the Psychologist Martin Seager who chaired the UK’s first male psychology conference last month, there are three ancient rules of masculinity that create the “male script” that shapes and informs our experience of being a man. These rules are:

  • Men should be fighters and winners
  • Men should be protectors and providers
  • Men should retain mastery and control

It has also been argued that men and women evolve psychologically through three similar stages of development (ie egocentric, ethnocentric and worldcentric),  albeit in a different masculine or feminine voice.

Masculine psychological development is driven by rights: i.e. my rights, our rights, everyone’s rights. Feminine psychological development is driven by care: i.e. my care, our care, everyone’s care.

As you consider whether your masculinity is shaped by nature or nurture you may also reflect on your own masculine and feminine development.

From a masculine perspective do you assert your own rights? Do you take a stand for the rights of people in the groups you belong to, e.g. your family, your country, your gender? Do you recognize the rights of all human beings?

From a feminine perspective do you make sure your needs are taken care of? Are you mindful of the needs of people in groups you belong to, e.g. your family, your country, your gender? Do you recognize the value in taking care of the needs of all human beings?

Finally, what do you think shapes masculinity? Is it the biological differences that make us male? Is it the social systems like technology, the economy and the laws that affect men’s lives? Is it the gender norms and values of the cultures we live in? Or is it all down to male psychology? We’d love to hear your experiences and beliefs about masculinity so please leave us a comment.

Written by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

 

There are seven types of masculinity, which one are you?

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How well do you understand your masculinity asks Glen Poole?

What does masculinity mean to you? Are you proud of your masculinity? Does being masculine come naturally to you or do feel that your masculinity is something you constantly have to prove?

Do you think that masculinity is all about manning up, growing a pair and being a real man or is your version of masculinity all about getting in touch with your feminine side?

Last month I had the privilege of speaking at the UK’s first Male Psychology Conference where I presented my thinking on the seven different stages of masculinity. These ideas are based on the work of the psychologist Clare W. Graves who created a “bio-psycho-social model of human development”.

To help make this model of masculinity accessible to those of us who aren’t psychologists, I’ve give each stage of masculinity an easy-to-remember name that reflects its key characteristics as follows:

  • Caveman Masculinity
  • Tribal Masculinity
  • Warrior Masculinity
  • Ruler Masculinity
  • Explorer Masculinity
  • Peacemaker Masculinity
  • Integral Masculinity

The theory is that all men experience some or all of these stages of masculinity at various times in their life, but will generally be most comfortable with one particular stage. By reading the descriptions below, you can get a sense of which stage of masculinity you associate with and begin to get a better of understanding of what makes different men tick.

Caveman Masculinity is mostly found at a collective level in pre-historic communities. If you can picture a human with the conscious awareness of a baby, living in a man’s body and driven only by his biological need to survive then you may imagine a sulky male teenager. Caveman Masculinity is far more basic, fundamental and instinctual than a modern teenager and you are unlikely to ever encounter it at a collective level in the 21st Century. At an personal level you experienced Caveman Masculinity as a baby when you drew upon your natural, unconscious instincts to try and get your needs met.

Tribal Masculinity is more sophisticated than the Caveman Masculinity. It can be seen in the development of shared rituals, traditions and superstitions and is found today in tribal cultures around the globe. You can also find tribal masculinity closer to home, in the collective worship of local and national sports teams, in modern mating rituals like stag nights and in the tribal culture of street gangs.

Warrior Masculinity with its drive for power and dominance can be seen at play in rogue states where political movements like the Taliban and Isis take control. Historically, the feudal system found across medieval Europe with its rigid hierarchy from Kings to Nobles to Knights to Peasants, is a clear example of Warrior Masculinity being played out a collective level. In modern democracies. Warrior Masculinity can sometimes be found in the grey economy of contraband, stolen goods, loan sharks, protection rackets and organized crime. Warrior Masculinity is also present in white collar boxing, cage fighting, hedonistic celebrities from the world of music and show business, rebellious teenagers and tantrum-prone toddlers. While many of the examples are negative, Warrior Masculinity can be heroic, protective, and a powerful force for self-preservation and personal advancement. 

Ruler Masculinity can be clearly seen in the world of team sports where each player has a role and everyone is bound by a single set of rules. It is no coincidence that football’s first regulatory body (The Football Association) was founded in Victorian England, a society where rules and roles were paramount. Ruler Masculinity is usually socially conservative and is most comfortable in settings where men’s and women’s roles are clearly defined and distinguished. This stage of masculinity is fundamental to traditional religions with their adherence to agreed rules and absolute truths.

Explorer Masculinity has it roots in the Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason) when logic and individualism become more important than collective traditions. It is seen in the fight for the individual rights of man (and woman) as symbolized by both the French revolution and the unbridled individualism of modern capitalism. If Ruler Masculinity shapes the game of sport, then it is Explorer Masculinity that is running the business of sport. Explorer Masculinity is practical, rational and meritocratic and believes that the pursuit of individual success should be encouraged, acknowledged and rewarded.

Peacemaker Masculinity came to prominence in the swinging sixties with the rejection of both traditional and commercial values. Peacemaker Masculinity is strongly associated with feminism, gay marriage, animal rights, vegetarianism, environmentalism, anti-capitalism and human rights campaigning. Men who associate with Peacemaker Masculinity are often considered to be more sensitive and empathic than “typical men” and tend to believe that we should work collectively to improve the lives of the “have nots”.

Integral Masculinity is difficult to find at a collective level. It was certainly at play within Nelson Mandela when he united many different stages of masculinity in the creation of post-apartheid South Africa. This is a typical quality of Integral Masculinity which can provide you with the ability to remain true to your own values, while still appreciating and understanding the value of others, no matter which stage of masculinity they represent. If Ruler Masculinity is strong and protective; Explorer Masculinity is assertive, independent and competitive; and Peacemaker Masculinity is more vulnerable, yielding, intimate, collaborative, nurturing; then Integral Masculinity at its best is strong and vulnerable, assertive and yielding, independent and intimate, competitive and collaborative and protective and nurturing.

Which stage of masculinity do you most associate with? Do you aspire to developing the qualities expressed in a different stage or are you happy with your experience of being a man at your favoured stage of masculinity? Do you remember passing through different stages of masculinity at various times in you life? Can you identify the different stages of masculinity at play in some of the men you encounter?

Every stage of masculinity listed above is valid and valuable and is a response to the constantly evolving and changing life conditions that we face as men. Each stage has its own potential strengths and weaknesses. Now you’ve heard about the different stages of masculinity, you may start to notice that you have a different way of understanding men. If you have any comments or questions about the seven stages of masculinity please post them in the comments below, I’d love the hear your thoughts.

—Photo Credit: flickr/dullhunk

Written by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men.