This is something that bugs me a lot. I'll see posts or pictures on Facebook that my friends have "liked" or shared that say stuff like the following: real men are ripped, do a lot of physical labor, don't need anyone else's help. E.g. I just saw a post by a man whose tire had gone flat that concluded with "Real men change their own tires." Then I see BuzzFeed articles or articles on other sites -- honestly there are so many sites that I can't keep up -- that say stuff like real men are caring, emotional, etc.
All men are different. Real men are different and individual and unique. Stop trying to categorize everything! Life and everything in it doesn't fit into neat categories. Sure, there are general tendencies, but it isn't helpful to lump everyone together just because they share one or two things in common.
For example: I was born in the U.S. and I've lived here all my life. Put me in a stereotypical box and you'd find out that I eat fast food or precooked meals most of the time, I'm uncultured and don't care about history, and I'm loud and overly friendly. Now take those stereotype goggles off and you see that my family cooks meals relatively from scratch on average 15-20 times a week (21 meals in a week), I've studied the history of other countries and actually took a test in United States history, I'm a classical music geek but I also love reading great literature, and I can be loud and overly friendly but I will be quiet if you tell me to -- I value silence.
This started out specific and kind of got general, but my message is please stop lumping people together in boxes that don't fit them.
I just read this over and realized that it's kind of a rant... and I don't care! If I want to rant I'll bl**dy well rant. There are only a few people in this world whose opinions I desperately care about, and none of them care whether I rant or what I rant about.
