i think at a deeper level manhood is a profound pursuit of our psyche. Our psyche orietates within a particular culture as diverse as Australia and Saudi Arabia.
Women are physically stronger than men. Female babies have a higher survival rate than male babies. women live longer than men, and women have a stronger immune system than men. And women are psychologically stronger than men. So men have stronger muscles while women, of course with exceptions, are psychologically stronger than men,
The social creation of a man is a delicate process. It is surely ironical that strong men are so psychologically fragile
,This irony is often remarked on by women.
I got nuthin. I can't argue with any of this.
I often joke that the reason women have the stigma of being overly emotional is because men started pinning it on women before anyone realized that it ius actually men who tend to be more more emotional or least, have less control over their emotions. I don't like generalize so while it is of course not true 100% of the time I can say with confidence that I know a far greater number of men who allow their emotions to control them and very few women ( teenagers don't count). My poor husband just,as they say "Can't even." on a daily basis. Last night I asked him to help me with the tiniest thing; slicing bread. He couldn't find the bread knife so he just didn't do it. That's a pretty tame example but par for the course.
As little tolerance as I have for overly emotional people ( self control is something we're all capable of learning) I'm sure that in the case of a lot of men, especially for those who seem to pride their "strength" this probably has something to do with social conditioning. Or, even simpler, a history of misunderstanding "strength".
When we say "Men should be strong" a lot of - loath as I am to use this label "western"-society says that strength is how much you can bench press rather than discipline, mental fortitude or strength of character. I would like to say we're coming around but ironically, with nerd culture taking over, I actually see this regressing. We're doubling down on the idea of "strength" as the "Alpha male" who has raped, killed, and pillaged the most ...in an MMO. Meanwhile, in real life, they are being outraged that someone took away their titty-customizer.
BTW, I'm not saying video games
lead to this behavior, I am saying it's interesting when you consider that this idea of manliness is
so pervasive that even yesterday outcasts and "losers" who used to champion brains over strength are now adhering to exactly what they claimed to hate now that they have a medium in which they can do it.
Unfortunately, since most games are now online and the internet is international, it's even hard to say that any one culture is much better than another.