I think some of the comments are based on people's preconceived notions of "what it means to be a real man". Somehow it's an old school notion that unless you're some tough guy you're less than a man. But that's simply not true. Things such as compassion are a strengths, not a weakness. What I think brings this thought about is simply the fact that it's more accepted to be who you are in public. The same types of people they consider "less than manly" have been around forever. It's just that society was less accepting of them so they had to hide who they were. They had to put on a sense of false bravado to fit in.
As far as not being well rounded due to more home schooling and self isolation I agree that's a huge issue.
Nothing wrong with being sensitive and compassionate. I consider myself both.
The problem is as I said, we haven't been raising boys to be boys for a good while now. If boys don't sit still in school, they are put on drugs. We drug maleness out of them.
Some males don't do well in a school situation, so what do we do, we eliminate Voc-ed programs where they could excel. We make them sit still in school, drugged.
Boys are raised to be more like girls. I know it may have sounded dumb, but I am serious. Boys don't climb trees or dig underground forts anymore. Plan massive snowball fights with the kids over on the next block. Have neighborhood football and baseball teams to play kids in other neighborhoods. Have a few rock fights. They sit around and do nothing that makes them male. The play video games shooting up things.
The nimrods who come up with this stuff are convinced boys and girls are the same and should be treated the same and raised the same way. So now we end up with twerpy males who hit their mid 20's and the women don't like them anymore because in the end they still want a real man.
This stuff isn't hard. The social experiment of the last 30 years has failed big time.
This isn't some deal against women, nor saying we need men slapping women around or anything like that. Boys need to come home with holes in their jeans, scrapes and cuts, maybe even a broken bone or missing tooth. Do some stupid sheet ( my rock fight comment..lol). It isn't ideal, but it is necessary because boys do need to push boundaries. They don't sit still. It's just a part of the male make-up and just the way it has been since the beginning of time. But now, we make them sit still.
Now we are having conversations like this ? No wonder we are.
A story from maybe 20 years ago. Some kid was riding his bike down the hill in front of the house and he wiped out in to a tree across the street. His sister rode off fast screaming for mom. He left the bike and just started walking towards his home 7-8 doors down. He wasn't crying or anything, just walking. I went outside but he was well down the block, so I gathered up his bike to take it home.
He as maybe 8 or so, and wasn't crying until he got to his mom and maybe aunt when they started getting in a panic because he did have a pretty good cut on his head.
When I got there I could see things weren't good, mostly from mom, so I told the aunt or friend to calm mom down a bit. I looked at the boys head and saw he would need 3-4 stitches. They brought out something to compress the cut, and I asked the boy if this was going to be his first scar? He didn't say much, so I showed him 2-3 of my scars and told him all men have scars a gave him a high five since this was his first. I told him all men have a few scares. They all hurt, but all men have them. It is just a part of the deal of being a boy. Way to go kid! That's a good one!
Mom and the aunt were both appreciative I was able to level things down a bit. Just a guy thing.
So Pit. I have known you in some fashion for what, 25 years? I may not like your political views or you mine, but I don't think you are a twerp or dweeb. I'll bet you have your fair share of scars, so you know exactly what the hell I am talking about.
