Unpopular doesn’t mean wrong. And disagreement isn’t to be avoided.
Sorry, no, there are no safe spaces in life, and uncomfortable truths and difficult conversation won’t wait around for you to be ready.
That said, conversation must always be respectful, forward moving, and measured in equal parts listening and speaking. 🗣👂
So always remember: Grant good faith, make subtle distinctions, listen carefully and try to sit in the discomfort.
Do not sanitise your life of the voices and ideas that don’t align with yours, for too much cleanliness will make you sick.
As for me, please understand I am on my own uncomfortable journey too.
This is a learning experience, and navigating the undergrowth of this neglected and misunderstood mangrove of masculinity and politics, requires thick skin, patience, maturity and understanding.
Mistakes will be made, by me, and you, and everyone else, but that doesn’t make any of us bad people, we’re on the same side, and we all want what’s best for all of us.
So how do we learn to disagree?
~
Illustrations by Dam and Surgey Demushkin from the Noun Project