2D has made me soft and feminine. Not just 2D alone, but avoiding western media and idiocy in general. Always had my soft side but now it's overactive. Most people IRL or on internet are more badass than me. (including gays, women, lesbians, etc) I dont feel intimidated, Im just alienated, and I don't like what Im turning into. Not sure if 2D healed me or infected me. Anybody in the same boat? what can I expect at this rate, and what can I do to damage-control?
>>41016 Begin working out, and let that testosterone flow!
Unless you go full on retard and start injecting estrogen or something, what's wrong with liking cute things?
We don't really know the extent of your situation OP. Are you just feeling emotional, liking cute stuff, a bit passive? Or is it something more serious? I'd cast myself as a bit of a feminine man myself. Maybe it's just a generational thing but don't understand the push to classify every minute difference in personality as some separate gender/sexual identity. That seems unhealthy to me. It seems a lot better to just say "Yeah, I like my houseplants and romance novels. I have a cock, so?" Rather than engage in some weird compensatory mechanism. I tried that and it didn't work for me. Life just sort of slowly ground on that insecurity until I gave less of a shit.
>>41017 I'm going to second this.
>>41017 >Begin working out Been doing that for a month now and I feel better in many ways. I noticed that my voice got deeper and I'm more calm. I will keep doing it. >>41018 >what's wrong with liking cute things? Nothing directly wrong, it feels very pleasant actually. >>41019 >Are you just feeling emotional, liking cute stuff, a bit passive? Exactly. I look male and Im no gay and I get my works done properly. Its just that my heart is too soft and feminine compared to what I think is normal. I see a dead dog or a beautiful VN ending and I end up crying. In the meantime not far away from my country there is war going on and guys lot younger than me(Im mid 30s) are told to "go and die" and they have to go and die. ...while I go to sleep in fluffy bed watching random Aria episode, it feels surreal and wrong. But this is maybe off-topic. Anyway, I can emulate toughness when around people, but it feels fake to me, and at the end I still probably come off as gay / weird / asexual and I dont have much to talk about with them. That's a shame, because I don't want to be even more alienated. So I was wondering if this is normal or what or should I try to "man up" a bit.
>>41021 >guys lot younger than me(Im mid 30s) are told to "go and die" and they have to go and die A lot of those guys are village idiots, who probably grew up around dead animals and had no indoor plumbing. Military is their only means of upward mobility. So don't compare yourself to them and feel bad. Yeah, peasants are the norm, but were they ever something to emulate or envy? No.
Watch mecha and become a weak-to-strong hotblooded pilot!
There is nothing wrong with this, what we see as masculine these days is not really masculine anyway, it's just barbarism. A lot of this is class based as well.
>>41023 >Watch mecha Now that I think about it, I remember like 5-10 years ago i genuinely enjoyed mecha and other fighting anime and now I dont. If I watched CodeGeass now I would be traumatized for sure. And no playing quake3 either. Only VNs and slow paced games with bright colors and moe. So something is wrong with me or at least very different than it was.
>>41025 Maybe watching Baki the Grappler will cure you?
>>41025 I think you've created a dichotomy in your mind where there isn't one. You can like cute anime AND Devil May Cry 3. But even still, you don't HAVE to like intense action if you don't want to. I guess my advice is don't force it, either way.
>>41025 Quake 3 looks like it would be boring and it's fairly old, I would think it's natural that you would be bored of it. I lost interest in most shooters, not because I changed but because they didn't or if they did it was for the worse, all the big shooters are the same or worse than they were when I was a kid. The more realistic shooters are better but they have their own issues like focusing too much around multiplayer.
>>41027 It feels like its a bit too much - compared to how I used to be - and it alienates me from the average person even more than I wanted to be. For now I think i leave it as it is and see where it goes. >>41028 I used to like Quake3 for quick stress-relief. I stopped playing new AAA games a long time ago. Maybe multiplayer is what people these days care about, or it is better for companies because of less piracy. No idea.
>>41021 >I see a dead dog or a beautiful VN ending and I end up crying. You shouldn't feel bad about crying. Without using substances I struggle to get myself to tear up at all. A lot of dudes will pound their chest about "never crying" but they're full of shit. There have been times where I've wanted to cry to let it out but I couldn't. When I get into those situations it makes me feel broken and inhuman. It's strange because I was very fragile as a child. I could make myself cry on command. But now, even trying my hardest in truly hard times I can't. >In the meantime not far away from my country there is war going on You seem to feel some shame about not living up to the masculine archetype. Just know that because someone's doing something "heroic" doesn't mean they're engaging with that activity in a way that's actually brave or noble. It's all pretty complicated and there's so much bullshit discussion around masculinity you're gonna have a hard time finding real solutions.
>>41029 Most people will play a campaign once or twice and then move on but people play multiplayer games for years with often the only new content being added being skins and a few small maps. They are easier to make and retain players for longer enabling more money to be milked from players. That is why I would say they do it. That and in some cases it could be because AI would be hard to implement in the game well and the game itself is a mod for Battlefield multiplayer, this is for games like Squad and Post Scriptum.
>>41033 The main "campaign" is what draws me to a game in the first place. Playing games as a social activity doesn't appeal to me.
>>41040 Same here, sadly we're not the majority.
Bro have you considered not defining yourself by the media you consume.
>>41054 You mean Quake3? no.
Eh I assume OPs problem stems, if anything, from too much porn consumption or generally spending too much time online in the wrong places to assume feminity = empathy = weakness I guess? I would be more worried about how this concern could lead to masculine overcompensation, or you just not enjoying things anymore out of some made up social pressure. In my case I always liked shows like Air, but was really drawn to iyashikei when my depression got worse, and those anime simply helped me get through the day and made me a better person, hopefully. Maybe watch Devilman Crybaby, or The Art of Self Defence, to understand that being emotional doesn't mean being weak. What is soft though is blaming media for you not liking yourself, if you really think 2d 'infected' you then go ahead stop watching, and the problem should be solved!
I find that 2D turns me into a more peaceful and relaxed guy. I like to take it easy and be as comfortable as I can. I understand what you meant too. 2D girls are so pure, inocent and femenine it's impossible not to get in a mood where elegance, feminity and even nostalgia could merge together. It happens to me as well, and there's nothing wrong with it. I think it can help us not to become lazy, dirty and brutish. Understanding your femenine side could lead to becoming a better, more balanced man. I wouldn't have developed a taste for retro and comfy stuff if not because of the 2D. Here's a pic I took a few weeks ago. Rewatching Anne of Green Gables. I could write an entire essay about this anime and what it means to me.
>>41016 >soft and feminine I think the adjective that better describes it is "sentimental". A lot of japanese media's like this. Ghibli and slice of life anime, games like Animal Crossing or Ocarina of Time. It’s not necessary softness, I think it’s more about allowing yourself to be vulnerable, but also carefree. That’s because these media remind us of childhood, with their tolkienesque pastoral landscapes, harmonical living with nature, comfy plot about people just living their life, slowly, one day at the time. Even western people who spent their childhood in big cities can still appreciate it, since there was also a lot of older western cartoons that were similar.
>>41298 Great post, and I agree.
>>41298 "Mono no aware" is I think the term?
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