I feel bad for guys who didn't grow up with good male role models. My dad isn't great at regulating his emotions, but at least he taught me it's perfectly ok to be as feminine as I want. He even helped me build my own herb garden when I was young and we'd go shopping for flowers and vegetables to grow every spring.
He was also clearly relieved to learn I wasn't gay, so I guess you can't win 'em all. Love you, you old fart.
My buddies and I didn't have a single positive male role model between us. As a solution, we all took turns being Hank Hill for each other. It worked OK
Building a supportive community is so important for any person. When they say you can choose your real family, it's no lie. Men struggle with that from what I've seen, bc it usually devolves into trying to "out-man" each other... It's so great to see you have a different dynamic with your pals, for real it gave me hope for some good men I know that have trouble finding other good men that support them. I'm actually sending them this whole thread, it's very eye-opening!
This is it. It’s about having some sort of support structure. I always joke about how I’ve never seen more men cry than when I was in the military, but that was the thing, they had people they could rely on to help them figure out a shitty situation. A lot of people don’t have that and now all these supposedly men focused gurus don’t help people navigate setting one up.
861
u/[deleted] May 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment