Iāve been reflecting a lot lately on what I might be able to add to the discussion on male privilege and toxic masculinity.
I think there are a lot of things we go through as boys and young men that no one really unpicks or even talks about and, from where I sit, they look an awful lot like part of the problem. Hereās a couple of fairly random thoughts on that topic.
[Photo: me circa age 13]
I’ve never been what I would call a “stereotypical guy”, a “man’s man”. I’ve always recoiled from displays of machismo, “locker room” talk, boasting over sexual “conquests” and the like, and have never felt comfortable engaging in that stuff.
Tutorial showing how I made a custom guitar with a rubber bridge, like the one used on Taylor Swift’s “folklore” – “Invisible String” and others. Budget DIY for under Ā£120.
This year it will be the 25 year anniversary of a month-long inter rail trip I saved up for and took around Europe with another male friend.
We were 19, had no fixed plan and travelled freely around, making our plans day by day, staying in random little backstreet hostels and hanging out with strangers we met.
We went to random parties in abandoned warehouses, slept on seats in trains and benches in train stations.
Sometimes we went off individually and there were nights when I wandered strange streets on my own, thousands of miles from home, with literally no one knowing where I was.
It was a spectacular feeling of freedom and, honestly, there were only a handful of times when I felt worried or unsafe.
Now yes, I was young and had plenty of hubris and was maybe more overconfident than I should have been. But it only occurred to me *this year* what an extraordinary privilege that was, and – more specifically- how much of that freedom was granted by virtue of my gender.
A recent study confirmed what others have shown before – that the overwhelming majority of young women (97%) have experienced sexual harassment or worse. And even that tiny percentage who have avoided it first hand will very likely have a close friend or family member who hasnāt been so lucky.
And so the harsh reality is that, by that same age of 19, there is a vanishingly small number of women who have not been affected, one way or another.
A woman simply does not get to breeze down the street in a fit of care-free exuberance like I did. Not because of anything she has any control over, but because of how our society and specifically the men in our society treat her.
This seems so obvious to me now that Iāve seen it, but the fact is it took me a very long time to recognise there was anything different about my experience compared to that of a woman in the exact same circumstances.
To my shame, this is despite having heard about the terrifying attempted rape of someone close to me on a similar type of trip.
I donāt think I am especially lacking in self-awareness (perhaps others would disagree) but the privilege I had and have was so invisible to me that it has taken a quarter of a century to even notice it was there.
Of course that doesnāt mean my life has been easy – Iāve had my own share of difficulties. But there are things that are baked into menās expectations of the world so early and so deep in our subconscious that it takes – or at least it took me – a lot of time and thought to see.
So, men: if you would worry about – say – your young daughter in a situation like that, then you *know* this is out there. Please, take some time to re-evaluate some of the things you do without thinking through the lens of a woman, and think about how different it might feel to have to live that every single day.
My wife and I have spent 200+ hours playing Assassins Creed Odyssey over the past few weeks and it is no understatement to say it is an epic game – truly worthy of its title. Still havenāt finished the main story line yet either!
Itās an open world RPG set in Ancient Greece and you can literally roam the entirety of the Greek world, follow plots with political intrigue, fight mythic creatures, ride epic swells in sea battles and even pontificate with legendary philosophers.
One brilliant feature is its Story Creator Mode where you can define your own quests, characters, dialogues and challenges and play them in game, as well as share them with other players. With the whole of the Greek world to play with this gives massive scope for community created content.
So we dipped our oar in (so to speak) and created this funny / silly little quest based around Bill & Tedās Excellent Adventure, specifically their visit to Athens to collect āSo-Cratesā.
If you have the game you can add it to your in-game story log here:
Finished a mural to say thank you to NHS and key workers yesterday, painted on our garage door.Ā This is a time lapse of us all painting it, with soundtrack by me & my daughter (a cover of Rainbow by Kacey Musgraves).
Thought I’d also share Solace’s original design, which I think we stayed pretty true to: Continue reading →
Slightly silly version of the theme song from 80s TV show MASK, celebrating the fantastic job our front line NHS workers are doing in response to Covid 19. ā¤ ā¤ ā¤
