Your Better Self with Akanna: We Are Men, Not Animals

One of the most beautiful sights in the animal kingdom is the Peacock’s tail.  This gorgeous plumage of a bird, with its brightly-coloured feathers and majestic gait, is so beautiful that people often think it’s a female bird.  But no, it’s a cock –it’s male.  Its female counterpart, the Peahen, is drab, dull-coloured and ugly-looking.

The majestic Lion has a beautiful mane surrounding its head.  So beautifully adorned is this animal, so radiant, so ‘out-there’, that it’s dubbed the King of the Jungle.  Its female counterpart, the Lioness, is drab and ordinary-looking.  It even goes out to hunt for the lazy Lion.

The male Woodpecker is more beautiful and brightly-coloured than the female.  So is the male Mallard Duck as compared to the female; and on and on.  This is the pattern in the animal kingdom.

It seems that in the animal kingdom, the male of the species is usually more beautifully-clad and dramatic-looking than the female.  This is in stark contrast to the ‘human kingdom’.

Have you ever attended a black-tie event or watched the Oscars on TV?  How do the men dress, compared to the women?  How is the man’s physical body even built, compared to the woman’s?

In the human kingdom, women appear in radiant colours, different hairstyles and a variety of facial makeup, while the men just look the same –all drab, in dull-coloured clothing, and downright ugly.  Those who decide to dress differently and in flamboyant colours, quickly get labels slapped on their backs.

This is an interesting physical contrast between humans and animals.  What non-physical message does it send?

Masculinity is jarring, out there, brash, with no holds barred, and that can be seen clearly in animals, portrayed by their dramatic-looking males.  As lower species, they have nothing else to offer their female counterparts but physical might, appearance and jarring sex devoid of emotional connection.

And they put it out there, using it to their advantage all the time.  They have no concept of self control; they are completely impulse-driven.

Humans are better than animals, we are higher beings.

We have something higher than the physical to offer.  Unlike animals, our men don’t come in flamboyant colours, they don’t exert their physical strength brutishly on anyone, let alone their women.  They have more than jarring sex to offer; they make an emotional connection with their women, who feel safe in their strong arms of love, protection and provision.  They are able to suppress their masculine aggressiveness to be part of a team, and this is enormously valuable to their women.

When their jarring masculinity is brought out, it is brought out for the right reasons –for war, for protecting their women, for going out to hunt and provide for their families instead of lazing around like the Lion that awaits its Lioness to return home so he can have his lion-share of her spoils.

They use their masculinity for the benefit of others and not selfishly all the time.

Humans are higher beings than animals.

They are the species that can have face-to-face sex, enjoying such physical intimacy and having deep emotional connections that the animals are not privy to.  Those who don’t, quickly get labels slapped on their backs.

Mammal males, except humans, are equipped with a rigid bone –the baculum –that facilitates the mating process.  The body moves it up into the male organ to provide the rigidity required for intercourse.

Human males have no such physical aid.  They depend on arousal from the non-physical, emotional connection they have with their women, to hold that rigidity in place.

Animals with their jarring masculinity have sex for procreation only, and the male treats the female as an object toward fulfilling that goal.  The Cock runs after the Hen tirelessly until he pins her down, subdues her, and proceeds to plant his seed in her.

Humans know better, or at least they should.  Men know to procreate, but they also know to provide physical intimacy and meet their women’s needs first.

There are those who don’t though; they mate for their own sexual gratification, leaving the women in emotional shambles running around for help, for safety in some numbers of similar women.

These men accurately paint the picture of the Cock that tirelessly runs after the Hen to subdue her.  And that’s exactly what they are– chickens!  Chickens scared of being real men.  Chickens so impulse-driven and lacking in self-control, that they live in close parallels to the animal kingdom.

Some have strutted around like the Peacock, using their lofty positions and brightly-coloured acquisitions to intimidate the females around them.  They have put on false majestic appearances, wanting to be like the Lion that gets whatever it wants through intimidation and physical violence.  They have put themselves at the top of the pecking order for the wrong reasons or to misuse the right reasons.  They are not as pretty as the Woodpecker, they are not as majestic as the Lion and they are not nearly as beautiful as the Peacock.

They are ugly men, and maybe they too should get their own labels quickly slapped on their backs, so as to differentiate them from the rest of us.

Men are higher than animals.

We strive to be better every day, and we will not have a few stop our daily progress.  We will not have them drag us from our higher place, down to the animal kingdom.  We should know better, we should do better, we should call them out when we see them, and challenge them to behave like humans should; humans who know how to overcome the physical, through a higher sense of purpose and self-restraint.

We should know when to suppress our masculine aggressiveness for the greater good of all, and when to bring it out for the greater good as well.  Yes, we should know all this because we are not animals, we are men!