I agree with everything you guys are saying, but I do have a few thoughts I would love to add. One thing that I’ve noticed in some Christian circles is that there’s a focus on masculinity as our society defines it, but not as it’s defined in the Bible. I have had experiences with men who many Christians would define as extremely masculine by worldly standards (say, loves guns and football), but who neglect some of the masculine roles defined in the Bible. By contrast, there could be a man who loves shopping for clothes and cake decorating, but who takes on the masculine roles defined in the Bible. However, I think there are a lot of Christians who would still say that the first man is more masculine just because of his outward appearance and interests. It’s something that I’m still trying to unlearn myself, if I’m going to be completely honest. Some of the Christian men that I looked up to growing up had an extremely narrow, inaccurate, and often toxic idea of what masculinity is, and it really did damage my perception of both marriage and masculinity. It wasn’t until the past couple of years that God started to heal those wounds and show me that the things I saw were not good representations of Biblical masculinity.
@this-is-not-an-alien ugghhhh I’m neurodivergent too and I COMPLETELY understand what you’re talking about. It’s always frustrated me when people talked about how girls think, because that rarely applied to me and made me feel uncomfortable because I didn’t match that perception. It’s so incredibly isolating too. I’m not discounting these experiences for other girls, but I think it’s dangerous to solely lean on generalizations instead of getting to know a person for who they really are.
I never knew that about Ehud and Rosario, but I can totally see it. I’m currently working on a genderflipped Snow White retelling, and there’s a little bit of a similar dynamic. Except, the girl is a 5’3″ powerhouse and “Snow White” himself is a gentle 6’5″ giant xD
But it’s interesting, even with the flipped dynamic you can still very much see the masculine and feminine roles. I think Skia is partially attracted to Basil because he’s the first person who sees her as worthy of protection (they’re both super soldiers being raised in a lab, and her division is a failed experiment of sorts, which is why she never grew past 5’3″). And I’ve noticed that Basil is always physically putting himself in between Skia and the lab staff, I think in an effort to protect her from the harm that was done to him. It makes me very soft :’)
*laughs as one fey*
