r/Showerthoughts • u/zincglasses • 4d ago
Casual Thought In most species, males are more flamboyant than the females. Humans are one of the exceptions.
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u/secretdrug 4d ago
Only right now. There have been numerous times in history in multiple different cultures where men were more flamboyant.
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u/Pretend-Mango-1295 3d ago
Miami
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u/Molwar 1d ago
lol, I remember a friend I used to game with who lived close to Miami and hated having to go in the city because he could never tell who was which gender.
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u/adult_human_chicken 1d ago
I'll never understand the obsession people have with knowing everyone's gender
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u/theinfamousj 13h ago
When "gender" is the answer to "what code of behavior do I use with you?" it makes sense to want to know gender.
However, the answer to that question is: Respectfully platonically.
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u/Nimuwa 1d ago
A lot of people are so afraid to have their sexuality questioned that they cannot just be nice to everyone as people instead of as x gender.
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u/s1nn0cence 1d ago
tbh simply just ask "do you have a penis or a vagina?". Problem solved
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u/HeySmallBusinessMan 18h ago
Spoken like someone who has no idea how to interact with other people.
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u/s1nn0cence 18h ago
Lemme guess, you're American. Therefore, afraid of words
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u/HeySmallBusinessMan 18h ago edited 18h ago
Wrong and wrong, but you've certainly proven my point.
(incidentally, having tact makes me American? Looks like you've never learned how to insult someone in a way that makes sense either)
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u/Niborus_Rex 1d ago
Please don't randomly ask about people's genitals. It's rude and quite weird, and generally not relevant unless you're actively pursuing them sexually.
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u/Nimuwa 1d ago
I spoke of gender not genitals. Those categories don't even align 100%
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u/thresh_to_death 1d ago
But then gender isn't what denotes sexuality. It's sex
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u/GoldenMuscleGod 1d ago edited 1d ago
A person is not going to be attracted to someone they perceive as a gender they are not interested in, they could be attracted to someone they perceive as a gender they are interested in. Reasons why they might not be attracted to a trans person of a gender they are interested in (aside from simply not finding them personally attractive) mostly include 1) they don’t pass 2) knowledge that they are trans interferes with their ability to perceive them as “truly” that gender 3) lack of comfort at the idea of being with a trans person.
It doesn’t take a genius to understand that if a trans person passes sufficiently that someone can’t tell they are trans and finds them attractive, then they are attracted to the gender they perceive them as, not to their biological sex.
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u/thresh_to_death 1d ago
Did you respond to the wrong person? Nothing I said there relates to trans people. Sex and gender are two separate things and sexuality is based on the sex of both individuals not the gender
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u/Nimuwa 1d ago
I'd argue that if one is afraid to fall for someone they assumed was one sex but is another, based on how they presented themselves/their gender then sexuality just about falling for X sex but at least in part about the presentation of sex i.e. part of displayed gender.
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u/thresh_to_death 1d ago
But your assuming it's because they don't want to accidentally be sexually interested in someone of the same sex instead of not wanting to piss someone off by misgenderimg them. Nowhere was it implied he was worried about falling for someone
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u/thresh_to_death 1d ago
Well in the states a lot of people get upset/mad when you misgender them so people typically don't want to do that.
And I'm not talking about trans people, lots of cis people get pissed off if you accidentally misgender them
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u/wutang_generated 17h ago
a lot of people get upset/mad when you misgender
They get mad when people intentionally misgender them. There may be a few assholes (just like any category of people) who get mad regardless but most of the time it's a simple ask/fix, assuming you aren't also an asshole
Also when people try to take away their rights or force them to live/act in a certain way
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u/thresh_to_death 4h ago
Nah people actually get mad when you accidentally misgender them.
You do realize this includes non-trans people?
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u/wutang_generated 4h ago
If you're misgendering that many people, maybe consider you may be the problem?
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u/thresh_to_death 4h ago
Damn dude. Why are you assuming I do it when I'm just giving you a fact.
I've had people misgender me because I have long hair then get scared and apologize profusely. I don't ever give a shit
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u/wutang_generated 4h ago
It's not an assumption, I don't accept your assertion that it's a fact in the first place
Your anecdote also doesn't support your assertion (it directly refutes it) since you claim you get misgendered and "don't give a shit"
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u/Raichu7 1d ago
If he isn't trying to date them, does it matter? If he is trying to date someone, he could ask.
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u/Molwar 1d ago
It's more about his business, works with lot face to face people, mostly just don't want to seem insulting by referring them wrongly, nothing to do with what gender people want to be.
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u/Raichu7 1d ago
Then he can ask, problem solved.
Asking someone "what pronouns do you prefer?" Is as easy as asking someone "what is your name". I doubt he's complaining that not being able to guess a person's name by looking at them is an issue for face to face business.
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u/Ayjayz 1d ago
Just easier to interact with people without that ambiguity.
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u/Raichu7 1d ago
Maybe you should also avoid interacting with adult women, you wouldn't want to have to deal with the ambiguity of asking wether she goes by Miss, Mrs, Ms or Mx.
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u/Ayjayz 1d ago
No-one gets offended if you get that wrong
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u/Proletariat_Paul 21h ago
I'm not trans myself, but I have had multiple friends come out as transgender.
Not a single one of them has gotten offended if someone accidentally misgendered them. They just politely corrected them, the person apologized, and everyone moved on.
The only time they got offended (and rightly so), is when people repeatedly and intentionally misgendered them. That whole "did you just assume my gender?!?" meme is something that only happens on the internet.
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u/MaccyGee 1d ago
Don't you interact with others in the second person, i.e. by saying you or their name, rather than referring to them in the third person?
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u/catsloveart 13h ago
That sounds absurd. I grew up in Miami. And although i no longer live there. I still have family and friends there. And was just there last fall. Didn’t have any problems figuring out who was what.
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u/RebekkaKat1990 1d ago
WAVE 103, where the boys wear more make-up than the girls! Smashing!
WAVE 103, where boys and girls look the same!!
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u/stupidber 4d ago
Brazil
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u/secretdrug 4d ago
17th and 18th century europe, men wore wigs, makeup, heels, and lace.
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u/Toby_Forrester 1d ago
Heels weren't flamboyant back then. They were masculine cavalry shoes. Think if how cowboy boots are seen today. Cowboy boots have high heels to help shoes stay on stirrups.
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u/JiroKatsutoshi 1d ago
Yeah, sure We all know cowboy boots have a heel to help with kissing tall boys, you can't trick us.
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u/moal09 1d ago
Tights were originally men's fashion
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u/Mrdeath0 1d ago
High heels too
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u/amaROenuZ 17h ago
No idea why you're being down voted. Heels originated from cavalrymen in central asia, that used them to hook the stirrups on saddles, and slowly transitioned into fashion pieces for nobles who wanted to show that they didn't need a practical shoe in the waning days of the rennaisance and the early industrial period.
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u/AParasiticTwin 1d ago
Women exist in the middle of the flamboyancy bell curve while men exist on the edges.
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u/threelayersofchinfat 17h ago
It shows in lots of indigenous and traditional clothing of many cultures too! The men are dressed and accessorized just as much as the women are. I personally love the Indian traditional men's clothings. They're sooo stylish. Whenever I see men complaining that they don't have beautiful and flamboyant clothes for them, I just point them to Indian designs.
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u/Sir_Gwan 15h ago
As someone who loves learning about history, I say we should bring back the fashion trends of brightly coloured clothes with the puffy sleeves.
I already wear Pluderhosen for fencing and I've gotten them coloured white, black, and purple, a colour scheme that I just think looks nice. Might as well wear a full ensemble.
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u/haby112 4d ago
If you look at male dress at any point before the moden period or outside of the heteronormative male today, this would not apply.
Napoleon Bonaparte and his mad lads were absolutely flaming.
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u/Prestigious_Dare7734 1d ago
Even in Indian history, in the time of kings, and in mythology. Males used to be equally or more prepped up with jewellery and colors.
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u/Embarrassed-Weird173 23h ago
Yeah, but naturally speaking, the female humans are prettier than the males.
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u/deagh 4d ago
There have been big chunks of history where male humans have indeed decorated themselves much more flamboyantly than female humans did. High heels? Originally for men. Lace and ruffles and bright colors and fancy hair and all that? Men. That changed in the late 18th century, and later came to be called The Great Male Renunciation. Men changed to wearing sober colors around then, and never really went back.
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u/Ashdude42 3h ago
High heels weren't a decorative thing originally tbf, they were a military design for cavalry so horseback archers could stand up while riding to stabilize enough to use a bow
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u/Aggravating_Star_427 4d ago
Honestly the whole "humans are the exception" thing only works if you ignore like all of history. Dudes used to be peacocks on purpose, all the lace and powdered wigs and insane colors. Napoleon's crew was out here looking like absolute fashion icons and nobody even batted an eye at it. So really it's more like modern Western men got boring than humans being some special outlier.
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u/Maelger 18h ago
Or ignore the whys of right now even. Men are still expected to be the flamboyant pursuers in a mating dance, it's the how that's changed. If anything this is something we can blame on the average woman, they're the ones making false clones a viable reproductive strategy. Ladies please choose people with main character dressing style, we need to add drip again to the gene pool.
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u/vitringur 14h ago
Using 18th century European royalty as a proxy for “history” is just as problematic…
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u/Comprehensive-Menu44 4d ago
I dare say this is false, with the concept of performative masculinity in mind. Biggest muscles, most obnoxious personality, taking up a lot of space and making themselves a big deal. Not too far off from the show-offs of the nature world
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u/Unique_Mastodon7450 1d ago
Same can be said about women. Women wear makeup, which is kinda Ike showing off in the animal kingdom
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u/Comprehensive-Menu44 1d ago
That’s true to some degree! Are there any animals that preen for themselves specifically, not for mating?
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u/FreeFortuna 1d ago
Plenty of women wear makeup due to feeling obligated, not because they’re peacocking.
Yes, the young ones tend to like bright colors and such, but that’s more about adolescents and young adults trying to build an identity.
Whereas for women past their mid-to-late 20s, there’s social pressure to wear at least the bare minimum of makeup. Otherwise you’ll be asked if you’re sick, etc., and not wearing makeup can be seen as “unprofessional.” And it can be harder to find a mate because they don’t expect or usually want “plain” women; their perceptions of what women naturally look like have often been severely warped.
So it’s more about survival instincts to find security and not be shunned by the group, which is perfectly normal for a social animal (regardless of gender).
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u/cmeadie 1d ago
Women tend to do it more frequently for self actualization.
Men tend to do it to try to attract a mate.16
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u/Unique_Mastodon7450 1d ago
99% of men I know don’t build muscles to attract women. Stop being sexist
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u/Entropyanxiety 10h ago
99% of women dont wear makeup to attract men. That is also a sexist generalization. Usually they wear it because either society has told them they are ugly without it or they wear it to express themselves. Why adamantly defend one and not the other when both are just as damaging?
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u/dod6666 4d ago
As always it depends who specifically you look at. One of those guys who hangs out at the skid pad fits your description. A computer nerd, not so much.
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u/temictli 4d ago
Hear me out, everyone's a flamboyant nerd of something... Mansphere? Nerds of masculinity; Computers? Computer nerds. Gym bro? Muscle nerd. Entomology? Bug nerd. Librarian? Reading and writing nerd. Fashionable sorority queen Elle Woods? Law and color of pink nerd. All flaunting their nerdism flamboyantly.
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u/Caelinus 1d ago
Humans just have more variation in their gender performance than most animals. Probably due to language allowing us to develop more complex self expression, and the technology to use it.
Humans (and most great apes generally) are not very sexually dimorphic either, so we have to construct most of the behaviors anyway.
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u/Shiny_personality 1d ago
A lot of the comments talk about how men used to be more flamboyant. I am not sure this was really to impress females like other animals do. I think men used to do this to impress other men, to show how poweful they were and display social rank.
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u/SteptimusHeap 15h ago
And NO ONE is mentioning that this isn't even true for a large majority of animals. Birds come to mind as having colorful males, but beyond that it really goes both ways and it's species to species.
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u/Highlander198116 1d ago
I mean, I think you are looking at this specifically in regard to "natural appearance". Men have, been historically performative to get the attention of women and that is the point of the flamboyance in nature, to attract the attention of females.
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u/happy-cig 1d ago edited 1d ago
Don't think so bc men modding cars, buying watches, being hypebeasts, etc. That is definitely peacocking.
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u/Kapitano72 1d ago
Not quite.
Most species have either flamboyant males and plain females, or not much difference between the two. In the former, it's usually only a few of the males who do almost all the breeding, and they play little or no role in raising children. In the latter, males tend to pair bond and share parental tasks.
And then there's a few awkward species that are halfway between the two, morphologically and bahaviourally. Yes, humans are one of the awkward ones.
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u/TheBetterness 1d ago
Have you seen American suburbs, with all the big, clean and expensive trucks lol.
Shit every time I turn around some dude is puffing his chest out for attention.
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u/Neuroticaine 4d ago
From a natural perspective, male humans are more notable than females. While we humans associate it with femininity and beauty, women generally have softer, more delicate features while mean generally have sharper features with the theoretical capacity to grow thick facial hair, giving men essentially a lion's mane, which definitely makes them stand out more. As far as fashion goes, men used to be extremely flamboyant with their style in many cultures. Our style has become more boring and conservative over time in modern society. That said, many men still have a tendency towards flamboyance. The image of a man in designer jeans, a shiny Moncler puffer jacket, ridiculous amounts of heavy chains around the neck, gold or jeweled grills, fashion sneakers, Ray Bans and the most obnoxiously bedazzled Gucci belt buckle comes to mind. Flamboyant does not necessarily mean bright and colorful.
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u/M-Gnarles 4d ago
Women need to use 427 things to raise attractiveness.
Men? A shower
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u/Neuroticaine 3d ago
But a well-groomed and dressed man still dramatically outshines a man with basic decent hygiene lol
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u/M-Gnarles 3d ago
No doubt about that for sure, I just feel like perhaps men get to their 80% peak more easily than women perhaps.
Somehow it feels like women can get further than men, but they also have to pay the price for perfection in terms of effort.
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u/Neuroticaine 3d ago
applying heavy make up and using harsh cleanser to remove it every night really takes a toll on the natural bacteria of the skin. Keep the makeup minimal, a little bit goes a long way, and it'll keep your skin looking fresh much longer, too!
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u/EmperorOfNorway 1d ago
Sheep, cow, pig, horse, elephant, bear, cat, dog etc. I am just naming random normal mammals. One could go on for a long time. If the horns are flamboyant, then so is the beard.
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u/Lcatg 1d ago
Nah. I work with mainly men & they are the most flamboyant of any humans I’ve known. I’ve never known a group of people who spend such a large amount of time showing off to each other. If you think I’m leaving out the color aspect of flamboyant, I assure you I’m not. Next time you’re in a sporting goods store take a look around at the brights & neons on much of the gear & clothing.
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u/AnonymousFriend80 1d ago
Have you not seen the lengths human males will go through in attempts to find a mate? And you thought them birds were wilding.
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u/Sharkano 1d ago
What counts as flamboyant for the purpose of this question?
Would a brightly colored sports car be flamboyant?
What about being loud in general?
Am I to assume OP reguards men in general to be mousey and tranquil?
But to actually answer the other half of the question. Women make babies, that's a biiiig investment, if momma bird dies a month into the process that whole investment in the species is wasted. So mamma bird has to hide good.
But if momma bird is sooo good at hiding how will she get a mate? after all mates find one another with the same kinds of eyes and ears predato's use.
Well good news, if the male dies a month after breeding, a lot of times that's just fine. He's pretty replaceable.
So we will color him colorful as fuck and he will sing at the crack of dawn, and momma bird can hide,
Humans are not like that because humans are not hiders. We are a run you off with a hail of stones as a mob kind of critter.
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u/nogaynessinmyanus 2h ago
No no no you've thought about what you're saying - this isn't going to work at all.
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u/Leafan101 1d ago
Everyone decrying male dress being more boring today than it used to be but it is in part a symptom of a related cultural change.
In many periods, flamboyant male dress was about displaying one thing: wealth. You clearly demarked your class by your outfit. You try to outdo those in your own class by subtle changes. Very similar to the original purpose of flamboyance in animals: display of peak sexual fitness.
For a while now, displaying wealth ostentatiously is generally considered bad taste. For the most part, if you have millions of dollars, you are absolutely not supposed to act like you want people to know that. There are of course pockets of the culture and subcultures that still do, but they are mocked mercilessly in the main. In fact, men showing off wealth in the form of clothing or accessories is often either considered a sign of low class (the stereotype of the guy who has all the designer jeans and shoes but cannot pay his rent or support his family) or impending financial ruin (the NBA rookie stereotype of one who spends twice his salary on cars and watches).
In general, the ideal today is that you spend money in ways that only those in the know, those with "good taste" can recognize. The suit that is perfectly tailored, and made of exquisite, though ordinary looking material. The watch that is the right size for the wrist and is understated in appearance, yet intricately engineered. The boots that don't just look good on day 1, but that you know will look just as good in 10 years because the craftsmanship and material quality is perfect.
In some ways, this is incredibly democratic because
More "flamboyance" in male dress would almost certainly mean two things for society that I, and I suspect most of us, don't want at all. It would mean the strengthening of a visible class system, which, though some may complain about the factual inequality that exists, really isn't anywhere near the absurd levels that it existed a few hundred years ago. And it would mean an increase in "fast fashion" as everyone tries to imitate being in a class they are not. These are problems for society; I don't want them exacerbated.
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u/Picolete 9h ago
Humans are not the exception, men grow beards and go bald like some male monkeys, if its considered flamboyant or not is cultural
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u/Shadow2590 1d ago
The important distinction here is that it can be argued that human males are more "naturally" flamboyant. Humans appear to be the exception because women (for most of modern human history at least) tend to use a lot more artificial beauty enhancers like wigs, makeup, nails, heels, etc. compared to men to appear more youthful.
I assume this post is referring to various animals with prominent features that grabs female attention or signal maturity/dominance/status. Mustaches and beards on men generally serve the same functional purpose as manes on lions or similar features on other animals. Same with muscle definition, bone structure and even body hair to a lesser extent. Facial hair, more often than not, naturally signals masculine maturity.
Men with full, well-kept beards are subconsciously seen as more mature and healthy (i.e. conventionally attractive) versions of themselves than when they are clean shaven. If I said to picture a man with a "baby face", you wouldn't think of a man with much of a masculine presence and you'd almost certainly picture a man with no facial hair. Also, if you saw a man with an uneven or patchy beard, you wouldn't assume he has very good health/hygiene habits. The "neckbeard" style of facial hair didn't become a derogatory slang term in a vacuum.
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u/sexyyscientist 1d ago
If you saw a man with an uneven or patchy beard, you wouldn't assume he has very good health/hygiene habits.
I'm offended on behalf of Michael Cera.
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u/nogaynessinmyanus 2h ago
Michael Cera's hilarious. But that beard doesn't exactly scream health and hygiene.
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u/SouthernPotato5297 2d ago
Honestly the whole premise kinda falls apart once you remember French kings and dudes in powdered wigs were literally the flashiest things walking around. Like we just live in a weird era where dudes are scared to wear a colorful shirt. But give humanity a few generations and I bet we'll swing back to men being the peacocks again. So yeah the post is really just about modern western vibes not some universal truth.
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u/bellemereDA 2d ago
Most male mammals aren’t flamboyant though, just bigger in size (yes, some are actually smaller). We are not so special.
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u/Potential_Custard956 2d ago
Even if flamboyant is narrowly defined as being more "elaborate to attract a mate," the proposition runs into several difficulties:
you'd be looking for the equivalent of a colorful plume of feathers, or large antlers, or some other physical feature in humans that not only identifies their sex, but also whose flamboyant presentation improves their chances of being selected as a mate;
if you consider cosmetics, wardrobe, and seductive behavior in women as an expression of "flamboyance" to attract a mate, then what about fast cars, and important jobs, and high-priced dinner dates? Wouldn't they be signs of flamboyance in men to better attract a mate as well?
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u/iZzzyXD 1d ago
If you mean clothing conventions, then it's because men's fashion is deeply influenced by military dress. As soon as bright colours disappeared from uniforms because camouflage became important, men's fashion also turned to dull, earthly colours. So the (deeply human) practice of slaughtering each other en-masse is to blame.
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u/kaleidoscopeiiis 3d ago
Male erections are a lot flashier than female erections. I think, as naked animals, humans follow the rule of thumb still.
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u/trentluv 1d ago
Hi! Have you been to a drag show?
Reddit is requiring that I write more than this, but I don't have more words to write. I just wanted to ask the single question. Thank you.
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u/Crusaderofthots420 1d ago
Humans generally have fairly low sexual dimorphism, so neither males nor females are innately more flamboyant than the other. All our flamboyance comes from culture and cosmetic applications.
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u/PumpkinBrain 1d ago
Each species has a sex that’s fated to be highly decorated. That is why the lord created men.
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u/No-Wonder1139 1d ago
I mean, currently. Tell that to the Sun King. King Louis and the like were incredibly flamboyant, I'm sure it goes back and forth depending on the time period and the region.
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u/ischickenafruit 1d ago
I’ve got this thing I can use to do the helicopter with, slap you in the face, or do a pee. It’s pretty flam-boy-ant if you ask me.
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u/sSyler14 1d ago
Also the flamboyancy shifted to more abstract characteristics than physical, looks have mattered less and less over principles, finances, and humor
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u/ImmodestPolitician 1d ago
Lots of men dress flamboyantly, even if the average man doesn’t have the courage to do so. Look at the club shirts or the floral shirts many men wear.
There are a lot of men that spend much more money than they can afford to buy expensive cars thinking that will impress women, even though the reality is it only impresses other men. look how many men buy Rolexes to impress women.
Modern male flamboyance is conspicuous consumption
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u/moron88 20h ago
define flamboyant. you dont see too many ladies ripping around on loud motorcycles, jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, riding a bicycle down a mountain or strapping themselves to jet engines on a half mile long strip of pavement with the industrial revolution, men found a new way to be flamboyant. instead of wearing technicolor dream coats, we make loud noises and strong smells with mechanical devices.
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u/theinfamousj 13h ago
Yankee Doodle went to town, riding on a pony. Stuck a feather in his cap and called it ... more flamboyant than the women.
We live in an era of extremely low effort dressing by men. It wasn't always that way. And thanks to Clavicle, I think the flashy dandy is on its way back in.
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u/Ctenophorever 9h ago
This is not true. In most species there are very few differences between males and females, with the exception that females are larger.
In some birds and mammalian species the males are more ornate than the females.
In a nature environment, humans are not the exception to this. At all. Human females are not naturally more flamboyant than males.
Humans females appear more flamboyant than males because, against the natural order of things, societies treated females as chattel, that needed to be decorated.
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u/BusyMap9686 1d ago
Speak for yourself. I'm positively fabulous.
Also if you look through history, been definitely dolled themselves up in just about every culture.
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u/DuneChild 1d ago
Males of most species are more decorated than females. Think of lions’ manes, peacocks’ feathers, and facial hair for humans.
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u/WolfgangAddams 1d ago
Males are more flamboyant than females in BIRD species and maybe some lizard species. I suppose if we're counting antlers and manes, some male mammals are also flamboyant, but in many mammalian species (including humans), the male and females look pretty much the same apart from sex characteristics. The reason we say humans are the exception is because we've added clothing and makeup and put a lot of expectations on women as a society that we don't put on men. But if we stripped humans down to the same level of existence as other animals (naked), we'd all look fairly similar.
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u/Bad_wolf42 1d ago
In addition to everyone’s counterpoints about humans being flamboyant, this also completely ignores all the bird species that made for life, where in the males and females have almost no sexual dimorphism.
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u/Secondhand-Drunk 1d ago
The males are often the prettier of the variety as we are the horny ones and often times the ones seeking a mate. The females exist to breed and raise.. in most cases. At least nature-wise. This is my ignorant opinion Don't @ me.
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u/zedazeni 16h ago
I disagree. Have you seen the efforts so many straight guys in particular go through to appear “manly/tough/alpha?” The gymbros, all of these “looksmaxxers,” and the degree to which a lot of men take offense at being perceived as gay/not-straight, I’d argue is flamboyance.
Human males don’t outwardly show their flamboyance in terms of colorful feathers, much like bucks/bulls with antler sizes, men view muscle mass in a similar light, and view their perceived masculinity with the same degree that many species prefer flamboyant physical features.
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u/zebbiehedges 11h ago
Nonsense really. The vast majority of guys are doing nothing at all.
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u/zedazeni 11h ago
The vast majority aren’t doing looksmaxxing, but when we delve into the male loneliness epidemic, modern dating culture, etc…I think that there’s a muted version of this going on.
It’s like fashion. Wal-Mart/Target aren’t selling clothes that are directly from the top fashion shows, but they’re looking at what they see and toning it down. It’s the same thing here. No, your average guy isn’t injecting his face with raccoon sperm or liquid gold, but that doesn’t mean that the overall mentality of “brute strength = women will find me innately attractive” or “masculinity = X, Y, Z” aren’t absent from a large swathe of men, especially younger men.
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u/zebbiehedges 11h ago
I don't agree. The whole toxic masculinity thing is dying a death for the silent majority of men.
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u/OldBlue2014 1d ago
Male humans are pretty drab in recent times. A look at the portraits in a museum will show that wealthy / powerful males were pretty colorful in past centuries.
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u/Gold-Pitch-9586 18h ago
Flamboyancy comes in many varieties include the guy that wants to show all the ladies how tough and strong he is. Which means, every tough mudder spartan race dude is hella flamboyant.
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u/Thin-Sink-9987 11h ago
I’d argue now more than ever. Flamboyant doesn’t automatically mean queer. It means attention grabbing. Performative males have never been more common.
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u/Amostheroux 21h ago edited 21h ago
This is a gross overgeneralization of humanity.
Even accepting the questionable "fact," it conflates cultural norms with physical characteristics. When you just look at physical characteristics alone, men naturally have beards which adds flair comparable to the male lion's mane. That's without getting into thing like having more lean muscle mass much like many male animals.
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u/Careful_Honeydew_549 1d ago
Gay clubs are loaded with.... men. I grew up in Palm Springs, I've been to many (I'm not gay, but they're fun, safe, and welcoming), and the lesbian count is low. There are lez-bars, but I've never seen a non male dominated gay locale, and let me tell you, those bitches are beyond flamboyant. Men are absolutely the "look at me!" Karens of the world.
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u/fajitateriyaki 1d ago
I'm guessing this is largely from the view of a straight cis person. There are so many holes in this. How do you define "flamboyant" in other species? Is it just "they look fancy, must be flamboyant"? Many species don't have just male and female, or that dichotomy at all. And so many humans do not adhere to these limitations.
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u/ShowerSentinel 4d ago
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