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submitted 1 year ago by KasanMoor@beehaw.org to c/chat@beehaw.org

Personal background: I strongly feel just about everyone grows up and has something shitty about them. I know growing up I definitely thought and said some less-than-ideal jokes about women, minorities, etc. And while some of that was the proverbial 'the times', and some was growing up in a sheltered hyper Christian southern American conservative situation, I regret my actions and am happy I grew past that. And I do think people, especially younger, can grow past their shittiness, especially with the help of others, which was true for me too... When I got my first W2 job a superior I looked up to helped mold me into a better person by calling me out on things and modeling a better behavior.

Current situation: I'm now the supervisor position, have been for a decade (retail is a trap) and I've taken that to heart, calling out jokes that aren't funny, etc. But recently we hired a new kid who acts really incel-ish, and who apparently has attached himself to me instantly. I've had moderate success so far just telling him his 'lol women dumb' jokes aren't funny, and modeling how working with women is... normal? Anyways, I don't wanna screw this up so do y'all have any suggestions for me to help keep him from going down an unfortunate path? I know at the end of the day I'm not responsible for others' routes in life, but I feel we should all do our parts.

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[-] Rentlar@beehaw.org 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I mean it's a good thing he's found you as a helpful mentor.

One online personality who I know is fairly good at explaining things in terms even people caught in right-wing pipelines can understand: Beau of the Fifth Column on YouTube.

Take this video for example on the topic of masculinity. Here Beau talks about the current trend of projecting masculinity and "being manly" through things like posture, limiting yourself to specific hobbies, talking certain ways and making yourself appear stoic to attract girls. He says it's not unlike how women were trained to behave in the 19th century in order to court a man.

His style is patient, and he speaks in a way that can resonate with a lot of people, including those who are confused about certain progressive people movements, and even those that are settled deep in the conservative tar pit.

You'll want to avoid sounding too preachy all the time, and be sure you recognize and empathize with anything he might be struggling with.

[-] KasanMoor@beehaw.org 13 points 1 year ago

Huh, that's an interesting route to take. I worry it'll become too similar to the trap of "pink isn't a girl's color, it's actually a boy's color and they switched in the XX'th century and it's the color of blood so it's manly" that I've seen a lot of people fall into (kicking myself because I was one of them). It's not a bad step to be in, in that it helps normalize normally "feminine" actions/dress/etc. as things men can wear, but it's also just... still gendered unnecessarily?

To be clear, I haven't watched it yet and still intend to, I just worry about that from your description of it.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah one of the big things that helped me snap out was male role models teaching me that all of that masculinity crap doesn't matter. The BEST phrase I heard was when someone said something stupid like "real men don't like Taylor Swift" my mentor responded "Real men don't care". That stuck with me.

Having a man I look up to tell me that real men do whatever they like and don't let others dictate what they can or can't so succinctly was just a game changer. No one had worded it like that to me. Real men don't care.

[-] Primarily0617@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

real men do whatever they like and don’t let others dictate what they can or can’t

this might not be a good message to deliver to a member of a group so prolific in the mass-shooting community that they have a wikipedia article dedicated to that fact

Out of context there, he was just so casual and chill about it. It was more "they don't care if other people are judging them" and they shouldn't, no one should. Of course the subtext applies that "as long as you aren't hurting anyone else".

[-] Primarily0617@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

i would raise a very similar point about understanding nuance

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this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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