This is a comment by Peter von Maidenberg on the post “Society wants dads to ‘step up’, but they are literally stomped down when they do.”
“Men in particular have been tasked with accepting, embodying, living contradiction. It seems to go along with our assigned role as Atlases who hold up the real world and keep it running. We have to reconcile not just contradictory roles and responsibilities, but negotiate between explicit expectations and those society will not own up to.
“We have to switch between opposite roles quickly and flawlessly—worker to husband and father, or in extremes, disciplined killer in wartime to nurturing provider in peace. Any hesitancy or incapacity is punished severely; there is no understanding, no forgiveness. But there should be. Society is just not ready to get it straight what it wants from us—or from anybody.”
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