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Bored Panda asked Jack what advice he'd give those guys who seem to be stuck in a constant victim mentality and see themselves as being wronged by society and those around them. The expert said that people should start off with small tasks and minor victories.
"Do one thing and progress at it to prove you’re not a victim. Lift weights. Help someone. Advance your career. Have a successful relationship," he said. "When you’re successful in one area you build confidence in yourself and that will translate to all of your life."
He added that we need time to adjust to the positive changes we're making in life: "Your brain needs proof around your new identity."
A lot of so-called 'nice guys' pretend that they have a lot of confidence in themselves, however, that illusion can quickly shatter when they're faced even with small challenges or if things don't go as they envisioned. When their expectations aren't met, 'nice guys' tend to get angry at those around them. That's something an actually confident person would never do: they would accept being rejected and simply move on.
However, true confidence is a skill that we can all learn, though it will take time, patience, and persistence. "Confidence comes from repetition and mastery. The more you do ANYTHING, the more confident you become. The good news about this is everyone is capable of earning confidence," fitness expert Jack told Bored Panda that this applies to all facets of life.
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Jack explained that it's important to reflect about yourself and how you can improve your life, especially in cases where real-life doesn't match up with how you view yourself.
"Responding to failure is all about the story we tell ourselves. Do you tell yourself that you are a failure? Or do you tell yourself you failed, have now gotten feedback, and know how to get better? It’s all our perspective," he said.
‘Nice guys’ very often embody the traits that some professionals consider to be examples of toxic masculinity, especially with regards to attitudes toward women. ‘Nice guys’ tend to lash out at women when rejected or think that they owe them their attention just because they happen to like them. According to British psychotherapist Silva Neves, toxic masculinity is a “general attitude perpetuated by systemic misogyny.”
The expert told Bored Panda that toxic masculinity is “a set of distorted ideas about what men should be like.” Silva said that these ideas include the suggestions that men should never be ‘weak’ or ‘soft,’ that they shouldn’t ever feel vulnerable, and that they have to “always be winners.”
“Men with toxic masculinity usually have negative views towards women's rights (including their rights to the freedom of their own sexuality) and they tend to be homophobic,” the psychotherapist explained.
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“A man with healthy masculinity is the opposite to these traits: someone who is self-reflective, embraces their emotions including sadness, anxiety and crying, a man who isn't afraid of their own femininity and believes that women are equal, and therefore are very clear about respecting boundaries and consent with women,” Silva noted how healthy masculinity differs from toxic masculinity.
Someone who has a healthy masculine attitude, according to the expert, “embraces gender, sex, and relationship diversities including gay men and transgender people. Someone who is comfortable with their opinions to be challenged and able to have debates.”
Silva, the British psychotherapist, believes that it’s important to redefine masculinity and how we understand ‘male success.’ “We also need to change the image of 'male success'. So, basically, we need to change society at its core because toxic masculinity is part of a faulty system of thoughts. That will take time, but it can start with all of us doing our parts about it,” he mused.
One of the things that can help, Silva believes, is having more representations of men “who embrace their emotions, talk about them, and show them crying, laughing, or hugging” in real-life and various forms of media. The key point here, the expert stressed, is that men become more in tune with their emotions, instead of repressing them which can lead to a whole host of negative outcomes for them and everyone around them.
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“Better education is definitely key but it is also down to all of us to challenge it by not allowing toxic masculinity to keep going. It means that we all have to actively challenge misogyny and homophobia,” Silva said that some people still turn a blind eye to hatred. The process of change and a more compassionate, respectful, and inclusive world, he said, is long, exhausting, and an ongoing fight between competing ideas.
