Gender Geography and What it Means to be a Man!

          The other week we discussed the topic of gender in geography. This is a subject of particular interest to me because I strongly believe that the different genders of man and woman are distinct from each other. I believe that whether you are a man or woman would definitely be important to a political geographer as it would have an impact on your political views and how you think about the world. Men want adventure, danger, and power. Men are goal oriented and always off to conquer the next thing and will squash anything that gets in the way of that. Women are full of compassion and a motherly nature to care for others. They want to be adored by men and to be protected by them. I feel like many people in my society today would not like these last few statements. Yet I do not think this portrayal of women shows them as weak. To be a good mother one has to be strong. My mother has 6 children and had to be a strong figure to raise us. I think many women would agree with the part apart wanting to be adored by men though I think that needing protection by a man is less valued in our society today. Gender may be a social construction but I believe it has enormous value in our society today because it helps one find their identity as a person. If one does not know whether they are a man or a woman he or she is not going to know who they truly are and the person God created them to be. Gender is especially important in families where I believe a child needs both a strong mother and a strong father to raise them and bring them up right.

            I was lucky enough to have many outlets to embrace my gender as a man growing up. Being in Boy Scouts from first grade to my senior year of high school fostered in me a manly love for the outdoors and important skills I needed to learn. Playing football helped me get out my aggression and showed me the values of sportsmanship and healthy competition. I currently subscribe to the blog, “Art of Manliness.” The main premise of the blog is that what it truly means to be a man has been lost in our society and that we need to study our forefathers to find out what it means to be a man. While I am practical in that I think many of the changes in our society are for the better, I agree that much manliness has been lost in our society and that we need to take it back. I also love books like Wild at Heart which show what it means to be a Christian man. Here at Florida State, I am in the Catholic Student Union. The Brotherhood of Hope is a group of vowed religious brothers that help to run CSU. They have been awesome in fostering a thriving men’s community within the Catholic Student Union. They have also been instrumental in helping me seize the great adventure that Christianity is, living out my faith fully, and holding nothing back. I know understand what it means to fight as a soldier for Christ fighting the enemy (sin and the devil) and bringing others to Christ. They have truly shown me what it means to be a man. Being a man does not mean watching sports, smoking cigars, and drinking beer (though I enjoy all of these things). Being a man means standing up for what you believe in and fighting for your faith. I think that if more men were able to understand this, our society would be better. We would not have passive men but men of action who taking control and responsibility in times of need. We would have strong fathers that do not abandon their children but raise them. We would have strong marriages that do not fail when things get tough.