This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.

Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
It’s high stress because unlike males, there’s no real role to slot into. You have to sort of make one, somewhere on the spectrum between pseudo Amish trad wife and ball busting girl boss dyke. And because Theres such a wide range of potential womanhood, there’s no target to aim for, nor can anyone help you understand the role or how to achieve it. You had thousands of years where this wasn’t true and had few or no girls deciding that they were men. Women knew how to help their girls as men knew how to help their boys because the end goal was known
'unlike males'? What real roles do adolescent males have today to slot into?
I think @MaiqTheTrue is quite correct about this. There are so many male archetypes to choose from both throughout history and throughout fiction media. Almost any type of path you can imagine has already been charted. Even if you're a loser failure incel, that's still a known archetype; you still have an identity, you still have a community of people like you and a place in that community. And who knows, maybe you'll turn it around and eventually become successful and make something of yourself. That too is a known quantity, a story that has been written many times: the tortured soul, the misunderstood genius who is only appreciated by posterity, etc.
Regardless of what you think about the female archetypes and role models on offer, it's pretty undeniable that there are simply fewer of them. You can be a wife and mother, and frankly I think many (most?) women would still be quite happy enough with that, although the cultural (not to mention economic) status of motherhood is more tenuous than it has ever been. You can also be a woke feminist political agitator, although that will understandably be unappealing to women who are not already fully committed to that ideology.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link