I think we're starting to hit a critical moment with this.
As men we have an unbelievable amount of expectation on our reactions, communication, behavior, past behavior, and others behavior. (Their friends and their partners)
On top of all of this: Men spaces have been mostly eliminated.
Same goes for virtually any space that used to be male-only. It's become socially unacceptable (and often illegal) to exclude females from anything, while it's still perfectly OK to exclude males.
That's mostly it being a victim of its own success; here in Canada, Scouts long held a better reputation than Guides. Something fundamentally different about how the organizations and parental leadership approached the kids, I suspect.
Its not illegal to have a private club with membership rules that exclude women. There are still several golf clubs that do so. In fact in the US its not even illegal to openly discriminate in hiring as long as the business has less 14 employees. In California that number goes down to 5 employees and local laws may be stricter still.
I understand the feeling but I think this is too zero-sum. You know who has the most positive reactions by far to men doing healing work in men-only circles? Their wives/girlfriends. Not because the men somehow become more 'feminine' or lose power, but usually because they get something that they badly needed and were stuck about for a long time.
This is using anecdata to dismiss another poster, and isn’t the kind of comment you’d tolerate from others in a sensitive topic.
It’s wonderful that’s been your experience of women, but don’t invalidate what others experience — particularly with a citation free comment.
For those wondering why my comment is flagged: dang engages in political censorship, and flagged my account because of my views. I look forward to the upcoming rules on social media censorship, and the accountability that will bring to dang’s actions.
We banned you for breaking HN's guidelines (with multiple accounts) and ignoring our requests to stop. Someone breaking the site guidelines to promote opposite views would get banned just the same.
As a group men are our own worse enemy. We aren't fearful of or controlled by women. It is other men that choose to align themselves closer to women's beliefs at the active detriment of healthy male attitudes and behaviours that force other men to fall in line.
Men aren't obligated or motivated to open up men only social groups until other men start to take issue with them (and usually for their own self interest).
Gentlemen clubs, country clubs, bars (although I don't think it should have been single gender), other than this.. I can't name many of the other ones. They were mostly gone by the time I became an adult.
Anyways, I have heard of discrimination that men have faced when trying to create "safe"/support groups that were men only.
I don't think I understand the desire or the concern here. Look around the BBQ in the back yard at any party anywhere in 'merica and you'll find the guys hanging out and chatting away from their wives. Look at sports teams in your high schools, colleges, and local clubs and you'll find men hanging out together. Look at Men's bible study groups or similar if that's your thing. Go to the local men's barber shop and find a bunch of guys getting haircuts. Invite your buddies to your place to watch the game...
> Look around the BBQ in the back yard at any party anywhere in 'merica and you'll find the guys hanging out and chatting away from their wives.
I don't know about your experience. But my experience: BBQs are typically a party situation with your household and others. If it's just the guys that's a friends thing.
> Look at sports teams in your high schools, colleges, and local clubs and you'll find men hanging out together.
I haven't heard of such of a clubs.
> Look at Men's bible study groups or similar if that's your thing.
I'll agree with you on this. That qualifies for what I was suggesting. It's a social thing and gets people to talk.
> Go to the local men's barber shop and find a bunch of guys getting haircuts.
Is that an environment that guys would open up? Most of these places tend to be "mind your own business and lets not talk that much" kinds of places.
The Freemasons are still here, and though numerically shrinking as postwar members pass on, we're experiencing a renaissance as a new generation of men come through with a greater interest in the spiritual and philosophical aspects of the craft.
It's worth noting that many institutions you would not have thought of as "men's colleges" per se were indeed all male -- Caltech didn't admit women as undergrads until 1970.
However, MAN spaces are everywhere, Japan especially is having great success creating spaces that are exclusively occupied by a single man for weeks, and sometimes years at a time.
As men we have an unbelievable amount of expectation on our reactions, communication, behavior, past behavior, and others behavior. (Their friends and their partners)
On top of all of this: Men spaces have been mostly eliminated.