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Notes -
True in a romantic way, but in real life I think the difference is less than is suggested by Mishima.
To be a man is mostly to be born, work, marry, have children, and die, old and frail and weak, unless you are either unlucky and die young at the hand of fate or kill yourself, like the author. Gay men have the most romantic notion of masculinity because they both worship it and can play act an extended adolescence that lasts through to middle age, when many of them wither or sink into deep depression.
Women have more ‘innate value’ than men, given their society, class, other demographics etc, yes. But the ‘given’ is doing a great deal there. A poor man on welfare in a very rich country like Switzerland or Denmark has far more ‘value’ (in the sense of a system looking out for him, providing for him, a safety net, the ability to coast through life) than an average woman in most of the world, for example.
“You will never be more than you are” is interesting. I don’t think that’s true literally, but even if it was I think this kind of deep life satisfaction, an identity as someone who has made something of themselves, is much more psychological, internal than it is external. There are people who achieve middling success who believe they have climbed mountains, and those who have done the same who consider themselves abject failures. The difference is in the head, not beyond it.
I suggest two thought experiments.
Let's assume that Denmark goes into a serious economic crisis and consequently the government decides to cut down own welfare spending? Which demographic is most likely to lose their handouts first, if not poor men, especially single men?
Take a 20-year-old pretty single woman from the poorest region of Ukraine and take her to a Danish town. Compared to a 20-year-old poor but handsome local man on welfare, which of them do you think is more likely to receive more attention, time, money and resources from Danish society?
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Also, is your argument then that homosexual men romanticize the concept masculinity because they are unable to experience their own masculinity by being a husband and father?
This is arguing the ‘intrinsic’ point where I agree with you anyway. Stripped of all possessions, social connections, class, citizenship, wealth, and any other designator of value, the young woman has more ‘innate value’ as a womb than the young man, all else equal. So yes, if you take away a billionaire’s wealth and they’re just a penniless old man, their social capital is far diminished. But in the real world, where social capital includes all of those components, this is just a thought experiment.
Neither necessarily. If anything Denmark’s increasing conservatism on immigration means the citizen will get more support, although Ukrainian refugees have received plenty. If you mean ‘in the dating market’ then sure. But of course most pretty twenty year old Ukrainian women don’t make it to Denmark. They’re either in Ukraine or maybe Poland.
That may be the case but I think it’s a small component of it; some romanticize straight family life but far more common is as with Mishima or BAP the romanticizatiom of the warband, the troop, the master and commander fantasy of all-male life at sea. Part of its sexual, all these otherwise straight men encouraged by circumstance implicitly into male company; gay men are attracted to the most outwardly masculine men, deepest voices, bulkiest muscles. But I think when you’re attracted to something you romanticize all aspects of them, they romanticize male camaraderie too.
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