I mean, we canât erase gender, so you have to believe in the possibility of masculinityâs transformation to something thatâs not oppressive, or even emancipatory. But, as you kind of touch on a bit, the idea of âpositive masculinityâ contains contradictions. Masculinity inherently dominates, so inherently inculcates particular power relations which depend upon subordination and ultimately oppression.
So positive/emancipatory masculinity is an impossibility even though we have to believe in it as a possibility because we can see in the real world, right now, how better masculinities are brought into being. We can therefore try and envision what it would look like to have masculinity sort of work in harmony with justice. In that sense itâs kind of like what Derrida says about justice itself - it is âtherefore always to come in the future, it is never present⌠Justice â this is undeniable â is impossible (perhaps justice is the âimpossibleâ) and therefore it is necessary to make justice possible in countless ways.â (actually thatâs a quote of someone explaining Derrida on justice in this article https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/derrida/).*
Like making justice possible in multiple ways, we can transform masculinity in multiple ways. One way I guess is through the sort of âshock therapyâ thatâs gone on in recent weeks. Another way is the sort of straight-faced discussion weâre having right now. Other ways are through play, which is pretty important imo. This could be linguistic, just subverting masculine norms of how to communicate oneself, your views etc. Or it could be social or sexual. âPlayâ is a really strong transformative tool because itâs creative and itâs imaginative, and through its un-seriousness it gives room for experimentation that takes a part of somethingâs meaning and twists it into something that can be repackaged to have a very different meaning. I mean, thatâs a foundation of a lot of kink play innit.
*I would say that Iâm sure someone like Judith Butler has said a lot about this, but I wouldnât be the person to ask unfortunately.