section_path: Philosophical perspectives/Post-classical history/By gender/Men
section_name: Men
paragraph_text: Men
  
  Medieval scholars believed most men were choleric, or hot and dry. Thus they were dominant and aggressive. (Barton) Aristotle also identified characteristics of men: male, masculine, active, focused on form, potent, outstanding, and superior. Men were aware of the power they held. Given their choleric "nature", men exhibited hot temperatures and were quick to anger. Peter of Albano once said, "The male's spirit, is lively, given to violent impulse; slow getting angry and slower being calmed." Medieval ideas of gender assumed men were more rational than women. Masculinity involved a wide range of possible behaviors, and men were not angry all the time. Every man's humoral balance was different, some men were strong, others weak, also some more prone to wrath than others. There are those who view anger as a manly act. For instance, David Brakke maintained:
  
  because anger motivated a man to action in righting wrongs to himself and others, because its opposite appeared to be passivity in the face of challenges from other males, because – to put it simply – it raised the body's temperature, anger appeared to be a characteristic of masculinity, a sign that a man was indeed a manly man.