What does *positive* masculinity look like?

You hear so much about toxic masculinity, but what about the opposite?

I made a list.

-Bob Ross
-Steve Irwin
-Mr Rogers
-Levar Burton
-Dinobot (especially the comics version)
-Captain Pike
-Samwise Gamgee
-Gomez Addams
-Batman (Adam West only)
-The Doctor (half the time)

Discuss!

Jacques Cousteau.
David Attenborough.
Carl Sagan.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Data (partial credit)

Doug Emhoff.

Ben Sisko

Ted Lasso

I know I am going to get shit for this because it has been hugely tainted by the actor playing it, but it is a character that treated his wife and daughters with respect and encouraged them to be their best. He was a part of his family life, and always had a sense of humor. He did not hit his children, but was respected enough that they wanted to be better people and felt bad when they disappointed him.

Yes, it is a character and not a person so he was written that way, but Cliff Huxtable seemed like a decent father, and I am sure would have had nothing but disdain for the actor that played him. That long reason aside...

Jean luc Pickard
Andy Dufrain
John Mcclane

There's a reason there was a meme calling Carl Sagan, Fred Rogers, and Bob Ross the Holy Trinity.

I'm sure there's some wokelord that would decry that they're all white men, but in this case the three are examplary examples of positive humanity.

Well, if you wanna throw in Jekyl/Hydes, Michael Landon's version of Charles Ingalls was quite possibly the ultimate dad.

But the Charles from the storybook was a gross racist.

And the real human the storybook was based on very probably took part in Native genocide.

Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince.

Shame it isn't running anymore, but the Commander from the webcomic Manly Guys Doing Manly Things. Cigar-chomping, drawling, time-traveling badass super-soldier built like Brock Lesnar but incredibly chill, supportive of his kids (and has practically adopted his intern Jared), who still gets on well with his ex-wife and has a job managing various "macho" video and movie characters (like Kratos) in their downtime to ensure they don't cause too much trouble.

I cannot say I remember little house all that well. The way I remember it was he stood up for some classism, but I do not recall him being all that. Cliff and the huxtables were a family I wanted to know. Cliff was a funny dad and he was smart and his kids and parents were good. He seemed like the type of dad who saw the best in people and certainly was never the sexist who would ever consider taking advantage of a woman like Bill does. he stepped aside when his wife was the strong one, and he helped her to be a great lawyer. He took the job working from home to watch the kids so she could be a great lawyer. In the show's cannon he gave up for her to be the best she could. I do not remember him being rough on the daughter's boyfriends and husbands, but he did expect them to respect and not ever cut them down to a housewife or sex object.

Maybe that was not all Bill either. Maybe he was aware of what a shitbag he was and tried to make his image something so pure to attract people. I do not really know, but the character is one of the reasons I find Bill to be a low and despicable person. The ideal of cliff huxtable is most certainly nowhere near the person bill cosby is. I think the ability to understand that and to strive for being more like cliff and less like bill is a part of how we show and absorb things like ethics and morality into ourselves.

Of course. I really wish I had been more of a watcher of fresh prince when it was first run, but I was out of the TV sitcom scheduling when it was coming out. I had to catch it in syndication later, but that was a strong man.

Your momma.

Bob Belcher.

From the sports world I can think of Arthur Ashe, Dwayne Johnson, Lionel Messi, Grant Hill, Jeff Gordon, and Hank Aaron.

She does have more balls than you, I'll give you that.

Is @Uncle Albert the inspiration for Biff from back to the future, or does he aspire to biff status?

That's true. I still remember Cliff trying to explain to Theo the value of education by showing how quickly you'll run out of money when you live like "regular people," and how I wish I'd taken that lesson to heart much earlier.

I skipped him mainly because of the events that set up Picard, but also because of all the times he was arrogant as hell during TNG, not to mention politely racist. Q Who could have played out so much differently if JLP had been willing to show some humility and accept Q's offer of assistance in good faith.

YES

I've been thinking about getting that Raquel Welch poster, but I don't know if the implied symbolism would be depressing or not.

I've somehow never seen Die Hard, but I'll take your word for it.

Me

Chadwick Boseman seemed like he took the "with great power comes great responsibility" message to heart, from what I've read about him before.

So many actors are shitty assholes in real life, but guys like Boseman, Chris Evans, and a lot of the Doctor Who actors take on those roles knowing they're going to live the rest of their lives as symbols to certain people, and they do their best to live up to that ideal. For every Bill Shatner being rude to people that just wanted an autograph, there's a Peter Capaldi taking time to reassure a severely autistic kid in person because they're scared The Doctor isn't their friend anymore now that he's regenerated, or who insisted on his costume for one series being sunglasses and a hoodie because "poor kids should be able to dress up as the Doctor too."

Holding a chick's hair back while she's puking.

Holding a chick's hair back while she's puking. That's positive masculinity.

Or, leaving her alone because she asked and because it's gross and who wants her guy to see her like that?

Fixing coffee so when she wakes up, all she has to do is push the "on" button.
Preparing every meal because she hates to cook
Making sure her glass is never empty.
Going slow (in everything) until she is comfortable at each level
Binge watching whatever stupid science fiction show for hours cuz that's what she wants to do
Running back home to get the pick up because it's just too hot for me to continue walking around the damned park

That's not positive masculinity.

That's a servant.

He is such a sweetheart. He does all that without me asking for anything.

Obama.
Biden.
John McCain.
John Cena.
Dwayne Johnson.
Terry Crews.
Will Smith.
LeBron James.
Tom Hanks.
Keanu Reeves.
Anthony Fauci.

I'm sure there's quite a few I don't know, because they are good men who are humble.

Fair enough. I've run into quite a few women who demand that of their SOs, often without reciprocating. I lose quite a bit of respect for the man if he's willing to put up with it.

I don't know any other women who demand that - but do not doubt they exist. Same as men have for ... centuries anyway if not millenia.

Either way, it's less about terms and labels and more about treating others with respect and dignity.

Hey, if a girl is comfortable enough to puke around you I figure it's only gentlemanly to hold her hair back while she's doing so.

Didn't John McCain call his wife some pretty vile names when he thought the microphone was turned off?