It Isn't Raining Men

I have a necklace with the Yin-Yang symbol on it. I am not strictly a Taoist or disciple of any given religion per se, but the concept of balance is one that is deeply rooted in my consciousness. I do believe in moral absolutes, so that is not strictly a Yin-Yang principle, but I for the most part believe in avoiding total immersion in one single concept.

My own introversion for example is tempered at times by extroversion. I am a political progressive with a few view points that are not on that platform. You get the idea.

Then there are the genders. I am of course totally a man. No ambiguity there. But I do believe the most well rounded men and women are those that are exposed, often and at an early age, to the psychology and perceptions of the opposite gender.

To be clear, I believe in gender equality, but not gender congruence, as it were. Men and women are different. Exceptions abound everywhere, but each gender does have a certain hard wiring in the brain, and hence a certain psychological make up that springs forth from same. So seeds of both genders are needed in a well balanced person's psyche, just as elements from both genders are required physically to bring about a baby.

Female influence I did not and do not lack in my life. My father died when I was seven, and I grew up with my widow mother and kid sister. For years we lived with my oldest sister, who can sometimes be quite demanding. She eventually had twin girls, and indeed with one exception all of my siblings had all girls. I have one nephew and ten nieces. So the problem is not with the opposite gender, but with my own gender. As in I wonder sometimes if part of the reason I am Too XYZ is the lack of appropriate male guidance when I was young, and sufficient male company now that I am an adult.

I do have a brother, with whom I do not speak any more. He made it clear from very early on that he found little value in me outside of being a sometimes amusing distraction. But he never did make any investment in my well being, and almost never took the time to engage me on my terms. Once during a family emergency he didn't even bother feeding me when I had to sleep at his house. He and his then wife had all the food because they were the "adults". Obviously not a male role model there.

Several uncles remained distant once my father died, as well. When they did come around they only ever spoke to the other adults about people that had died 15 years before I was even born. When I was spoken to, it was briefly and for entertainment value. I don't speak to one of those uncles because of his poor behavior. With another, I simply feel awkward. I don't know what to say to him as an adult.

As a kid in school I had male friends of course, but I rarely got invited to anything outside of class. One of them even asked at one point, "What kind of person doesn't have a father?"

I only ever spent any time with one classmate outside of school, and he had a very domineering mother. Both he and his father were quite well whipped by the time I met any of them. Don't know where he is today. Don't care.

For a time I was in the "Big Brothers" program. My big brother was a decent man, to be sure. But while my mother was hoping to instill in me some of that male influence, "Joseph" was actually about as timid at 24 as I was at 11.

It wasn't until high school that I had male friends with whom I would actually do social things outside of school. Wasn't until college that I started to make the slightest headway into any kind of emotional intimacy are familiarity with men. (For most of my life, a list of my top 10 closest friends has consisted of at least 8 women.)

None of this is to say that I don't consider myself a man. I do, although for a long time I honestly did not. I felt that being surrounded by women at home, at school, and other areas of my life, with little to know male contact meant that I was basically at heart, a woman. A girl who was never permitted to really be a man because he didn't know any of them. I have moved beyond that fallacy, for the most part. Even though I still don't have a lot of knowledge about how to do "manly" things such as fix cars and throw a punch.

Yet I still wonder if my overwhelming exposure to female perspectives, thought processes, approaches, brain wiring, speech, and home life has not in some way, when combined with my natural introversion, brought about an adult that is quieter, passive, and more introspective than average. I wonder sometimes if I would not have at least a bit more assertion and presence if I had been exposed to, and mentored by men at some point in my life.

Look, I was never going to be a hunter, mechanic, or brawler. No amount of males in my life would have made me Chuck Norris. But looking back on the memory of my dashing out the front door at age nine, trying without success to flag down the departing car full of the family men as they made their way to the shooting range to which I wasn't even invited, I can't help but wonder how things might have been different at key points in my life if the male/female environmental balance had been closer to 50/50.

None of this is to suggest that I inherit my weaknesses because women are weak and I have spent too much time around them. But we go back to balance; Yin and Yang, and to the natural hard wiring. What works in balance for a woman may not for a man.  I am not "effeminate" in the classical and stereotypical sense, but I am skewed towards Yin for certain.

Or maybe I would have been the way I am today if I had been raised entirely by the Brute Squad. I don't know.

What do you think? Does someone need the influence of both genders growing up to become their optimum self? Or is whatever we end up becoming the result of the seeds planted in us at birth?