Language is Key... / by Alec Erlebacher

I never post about this stuff but I feel like this needs to be said to whoever is willing to read it...
Being a portrait photographer has helped me to acknoledge the many beatufiul specific differences between how someone physically looks, and how they act... The term 'Masculine' is not the same thing as 'Man'. Being a man pertains only to the male gender. Masculine literally means "having qualities or appearance TRADITIONALLY associated with men". The same difference applies to the word "feminine". By seperating this traditional usage of "masculine" from "man" people can finally acknoledge that we can posess a variety traits regardless of what chunk of flesh lies between our legs. Plenty of women today are physically tough and stronger than a man, which is traditionally seen as a masculine feature. Plenty of men today are sensitive and aren't physcially strong, and there is nothing wrong with that! I honestly believe that using the correct language instead of always associating traits with a single physical descriptive word like man/woman, could help relieve the majority of prejudice in today's world. This extends beyound gender too! I wish everyone could see that specific physical traits like skin color and having a vagina doesn't define someone. This isn't the 50's anymore, we don't have to fit into standard traditional molds. The world is full of variety, and that variety is both natural and beautiful! So let's start accepting these traditional man/women charchter traits as dead traditions and move forward in celebration, not hate. #WeAreAllEquallyDifferent