Keiynan Lonsdale encourages men to ’embrace’ femininity in Instagram post

The Flash actor Keiynan Lonsdale has encouraged men to “embrace” femininity in an Instagram post. 

The 26-year-old, who last month shared a naked picture on the social media site to promote body positivity, shared a lengthy Instagram post last night (October 19) urging men to embrace their emotions.

Alongside a photo of himself, Lonsdale wrote: “I think man is one of the most fearful, scared and insecure creatures that have ever existed, and that’s because of the pressure each and every single boy has had placed on them about what it means to be a man.

“They’ve been told that it means to be straight, strong, to not cry, not show emotions, to take the woman, and have power, control, and money – then these boys that are full of love and innocence are being told that they are wrong; ‘You’re wrong for feeling that, you need to be tougher, you need to be a man, you’re too slow, you’re too weak, you’re too dumb.'”

He continued: “So we begin to resent every part of us that doesn’t fit into this picture that we’ve been shown – and we bury it and hurt ourselves over it and lash out. If a hyper-masculine dude sees a guy that’s more feminine and in touch with his emotions being just as successful and strong as him, he is confused because he was told that in order to be a man, you have to be a certain way.

 

 

 

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“I think man is one of the most fearful, scared, and insecure creatures that have ever existed, and that’s because of the pressure each and every single boy has had placed on them about what it means to be a man. They’ve been told that it means to be straight, strong, to not cry, not show emotions, to take the woman, and have power, control, and money – then these boys that are full of love and innocence are being told that they are wrong; “You’re wrong for feeling that, you need to be tougher, you need to be a man, you’re too slow, you’re too weak, you’re too dumb”. So we begin to resent every part of us that doesn’t fit into this picture that we’ve been shown – and we bury it and hurt ourselves over it and lash out. If a hyper-masculine dude sees a guy that’s more feminine and in touch with his emotions being just as successful and strong as him, he is confused because he was told that in order to be a man you have to be a certain way. And he is seeing that not always being the case, which means that he has been lied to, and that’s the hardest thing to swallow. I think masculinity is fragile – extremely fragile, but it’s because of poisonous conditioning that has been placed in each boy from the beginning by film, television and society in general. In turn, that creates this imbalance of power and equality against a feminine energy within ourselves and women. My personal belief is that a lot of the pain in the world has come from that. But it is changing, and that’s inspiring. It has a lot to do with girls too, because for a man to feel safe to be vulnerable and for a woman to say: “I love your vulnerability, I love your femininity, I see the strength in your emotion” – that gives them the confidence to simply be themselves, and I think we’re seeing it more and more in this new generation and just in general. People want people to be honest and that’s true strength. I have a lot of hope.” | Thx @boysbygirls as always for beautiful questions that inspire me to go in ❤️. We can all fly. Full feature out now 🙂

A post shared by 🌳🌊❤️💫🌸 Keiynan Lonsdale 🔑🎶👁🌈🍫 (@keiynanlonsdale) on Oct 19, 2018 at 3:10pm PDT

“And he is seeing that not always being the case – which means that has been lied to, and that’s the hardest thing to swallow. I think masculinity is fragile – extremely fragile, but it’s because of poisonous conditioning that has been placed in each boy from the beginning of film, television and society in general.

“In turn, that creates this imbalance of power and equality against a feminine energy within ourselves and women. My personal belief is that a lot of the pain in the world has come from that. But it is changing and that’s inspiring.”

He ended the post by writing: “It has a lot to do with girls too, because for a man to feel safe to be vulnerable and for a woman to say: ‘I love your vulnerability, I love your femininity, I see the strength in your emotion’ – that gives them the confidence to simply be themselves, and I think we’re seeing it more and more in this new generation and just in general.”

Lonsdale added: “People want people to be honest and that’s true strength. I have a lot of hope.”