Hopefully I am posting this in my actual blog this time and not in the main blog, but they have the same name, and I'm not far beyond making the same mistake twice.

Tense day in class today, right? I like the idea of ouch cards, but how exactly do we implement them? Maybe we should tie bells to them and throw them on the ground. Or instead we could get those little poppers that everyone uses on the fourth of July, and throw them around instead. Basically, I'm just hoping we can incorporate some arm work-out into the healing process whenever we're offended.

As tense as things were, I'm glad to see everyone's so invested in the discussions we're having. But I wish we had a little more procedure as to what happens when someone is offended. What happens after "Ouch"? Obviously, we should respect the injured party's right to be offended, and we should stay the hell away from any tone arguments, but we should also provide a space where we can talk out and work out the knots of the conversation, so we don't end up punching each other's teeth out over misunderstandings.

On the topic of what we discussed today in class: I'll be up front about it, talking about masculinity in a class on gender immediately puts me on edge. In the past, in any sort of gender discussion I've had, bringing up masculinity has unfailingly been tied with ideas of "reverse sexism", which, like the age old question "But why isn't there a white history month?", makes my tripes clench.

The initial cringe-worthy pun of "Tough Guise" put me even more on edge, but honestly, I was blown away by how rational and well-researched the arguments in the movie were (save the discussion on depression, which erased entirely the social stigma people of all genders deal with when confronting a mental illness). Ditto today's discussion in class. There were no cries for "masculinism", just a discussion of facts and men's experience with gender roles. I've been proven wrong. There is a place for masculinity in discussions for gender equality, and it can be done in a smart, coherent way.