A regular trickle of visitors are looking for information on masculine cultures. It took me a long time to understand this strange term – “masculine culture.” So what do I understand it to mean?
What “masculine culture” is not
- It is not an attack on men. Norway has a feminine culture and there is nothing wrong with their men.
- It also does not mean non-sexist, or even matrilineal. Much of Africa has a feminine culture but much of Africa is assuredly sexist, patrilineal, or both.
What “masculine culture” is
Masculine cultures are based on pecking order.
We all interested in our status, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that masculine cultures are obsessed by status. The jostling and thumping of small boys – you have it in one.
It’s not that boys don’t play together. It’s just they find it hard until they’ve sorted out who is “top dog”. And they put everything second to that goal – compassion, beauty, intelligence . . . it all goes by the board.
You can see that women can also have a masculine culture. It is not the preserve of men. Nor is it always bad. It is just very narrowing when everything comes down to pecking order.
Anyway, why does a positive psychologists working in social media write about masculine cultures?
1. Masculine cultures aren’t positive.
We can get good at winning a race. But the easiest way to win a race is to rig the competition or some other way cheat. We are on a downward spiral.
When we ask the question another way, and ask how quickly we can run, or how quickly we can get everyone over the line, we find more challenge, on many levels.
Life opens up. That is the essence of positive psychology. Does life open up?
2. Social media is about working with others.
Masculine cultures are about individuals or small groups beating other small groups.
My cultural test of the world of social media
I have my new MOO cards now and I am going to repeat my picture test.
- Which MOO card do you prefer?
- And which MOO card do you think that social media specialists and entrepreneurs will chose?
Subscribe to my feed (side right column) because I will post the results as I get them over the next two months.
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