Do you even lift, bro?
I think this speaks to the popularity of the stealth genre among cis males, too. Some boys grew up wanting to be strong, to power their way through trouble. Some grew up wanting to be clever and mobile, wanting to avoid trouble and simply be allowed to move unharassed. It’s really cool how your experiences highlight what is for most guys just sort of a background assumption.
A really beautifully-written piece. As a cis boy who nonetheless grew up alienated and disgusted by most conventional markers and performances of masculinity, I found so much to relate to here.
A lot of times reading experiences by people whose identities or backgrounds have given them life experiences fundamentally different than my own (straight/white/cis/male) experience gives me a valuable opportunity to step out of my own skin and expand my sphere of empathy a bit by engaging with the unfamiliar. But there’s also something really affirming and interesting about reading the experience of someone coming from a very different place and encountering an experience that feels so very, very uncannily familiar.
Basically, I love Offworld so very, very much.
There must be some kind of male choreography in place, some layout of steps I would have learned in childhood if I’d been raised a boy.
I was raised as a boy, and turned out nonbinary. I don’t get masculine tough-guy body language either. It’s intimidating and utterly ridiculous at the same time, sort of a “scared to laugh” situation.
I have nothing to add, I just wanted to say I loved this article, more please.
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