I would like to say 'thank you' to all of the 'bad ass' marines you grew up around - and their counterparts. It's because of them we can have guys who can be free to wear panties and enjoy anal stimulation. Like it our not they fought (and still fight) for all of our freedoms so people can be who they want to be. Embrace the diversity and be proud to live in this wonderful country of ours.
always be careful with generalisations and assumppppptions thet're not always right
I've struggled a lot in my life with "what it means to be a man". I came of age in a time when I think the definition of that was changing rapidly, but maybe it still is and maybe it always has. In my "formative" years, a hero could be anything from a man who went to Vietnam and got his balls blown off "for his country" to a man who said "hell no, conscription is slavery" and either went to prison or to Canada to protest not being given a choice. My father was a terrible example of a man, but you could only tell that from the inside of our house looking out. People on the outside looking in thought he was a good man. Coming to grips with the hypocrisy of that was crucial.
The one thing that finally gave me peace with myself was deciding that before I could be a man, I had to be a human and that means recognizing that I am the owner of my life and that living it free of shackles placed on me by the expectations of others was more important than being a cookie-cutter clone of society's ideal citizen. After that, I could only respect myself as I man by remaining true to myself. That means rejecting the belief that the old stereotype of a manly man was all good. I also reject the belief that all the men in the so-called manly professions are being true to themselves. Some of them are living up to standards set for them by pressure from others and doing so for wrong reasons. They're letting their individuality be stifled. But the same is true for the "new age sensitive kind of guy". Men are some combination of alpha, beta and loner. They're only doing it right if they're finding enough Inner Peace.
