In our culture’s present moment of confusion about many basic things, you may well have been wondering what “masculinity” means.  Well, have no fear, NPR is here to give you the lowdown on how to properly think of this topic in 2023 in a podcast from their series LifeKit, which magnanimously offers the benighted populace invaluable “tools to help you get it together.”

Here are just a few of the scintillating bits of wisdom dispensed by the (self-proclaimed) cultural experts at LifeKit:

It is affirming as well to see that NPR hasn’t left it solely to merely biological males to sort out masculinity and has included the voice of at least one transman, that is, a biological female, in the conversation. Perhaps we can expect another podcast in the future on femininity in which we get insights from some transwomen on their experience of that topic too. Surely no conversation on either topic can be left only to individuals who’ve inhabited the requisite identity positions for their entire lives.

Similarly, what discussion of the experience of being tall would be fully complete without the insights of at least a few people under 5’7” who firmly believe themselves, in their heart of hearts, to be 6’10” NBA power forwards? Or how can we properly consider how the highly intelligent conceive of their identities unless we include some with IQs at the population median who nonetheless have always considered themselves to be just as smart as anybody else, by golly? 

It’s all performance, after all!

Image: NPR