Hmm. Having read the majority of this thread, something occurs to me. Some people accrue things because they think it defines them. Be that wealth, power, material possessions, whatever the case may be. For some people it's a way to show maybe the world, but moreso themselves who they are. A means of looking for something within themselves that the trappings they surround themselves with are merely a byproduct of. A method of addressing insecurity perhaps. Or a way of avoiding having to ask themselves questions about themselves and their lives. Perhaps a need to fit in. Or a way to somehow prove they "have what it takes".
During my time in the Navy, I saw a lot of that. From both men and women. As soon as they had, maybe for the first time, got some money behind them... disposable income, they started to buy things, and attempt to buy people. Why? Who knows. I do know that one lass who blew a huge chunk of change on a new car, that she barely ever even got to see, did it because it was the only way to prove to herself that she was good enough. Because growing up her family was very poor. Barely made ends meet most weeks, and some they didn't. She was the first person in her family to ever really do anything with her life (according to her). And that was her way to prove to them, and everyone who ever made fun of her, that she could have something expensive and flashy to call her own. It was her way to look at the car and know that even if she never drove it, she'd got to a place where she could have something like that. And it made her feel good about herself.
All these things are often means by which one attempts to get society to see one as who they want to be seen as. An external validation of who someone wants to be. A need to prove oneself. To do what others do and impress in order to gain a boost in self-esteem. I don't find it so hard to see why some, most, or even all guys here don't automatically want the same things. Or elsewhere in the world for that matter. When it isn't drilled into you that you
have to have all these things in order to be someone. When you come from an upbringing where emphasis is placed on who you are, not what you have. Or when you come from a place inside yourself that's taken sometimes years of pain, heartache, soul-searching and understanding to arrive at who you are... well, these symbols lose a lot of their symbolism. For some people, life just isn't a competition. A need to have the biggest and best. And that has nothing to do with gender. More a state of mind. If you have it you have it, if you don't you don't. You do what you feel you need to do to live your life how you want to live it. As a man, or a woman, or a non-binary. And whatever that is, more power to you.
