Something I've been struggling with for some now, as silly as it might seem to some, is, what does it mean to be a man? What is masculinity really? Is it just having the physical bits? I would say not. Regardless of what you believe in regards to what people "identify as" or what they've done to modify their bodies, its irrelevant. If you are a man (or a woman) and something happens to your junk, hypothetically, its blown clean off.. you are still a man, right? Now, I know thats not how it works. If your junk aint functioning right, you are gonna feel like less of a man (and again, same goes for a woman) regardless. But, you aren't, right? So what does it mean to be a man? Most people would think of things like, being aggressive, taking the lead and being a leader, being strong (physically and mentally), wanting to provide, etc. But does that necessarily mean women are the opposite? I would say not. So can you really say these things are masculine? Now, I have always been male. I have never identified or felt differently. I do not experience any gender dysphoria, or for that matter, body dysmorphia. Therefor I cannot say I understand what its like to feel that. But I cannot define what it means to be male other than, of course, the body parts. Now, certain other websites with men who purport to support other men being men, etc, seem to have often more conventional definitions of masculinity which I find a bit unpleasant. They are all about, man be strong, man take care of woman, man make money take care of all things. etc. (caveman speak intentional). At the same time I do believe there are in fact physical and mental differences, but theres a lot of fluidity there and nobody fits all the stereotypes perfectly. This is all complicated for me. I've never had any issues with people and their sexuality or identification I believe we should all love each other and be ourselves. I have an assigned at birth daughter who is now almost 21 and is in the process of gender reassignment. I love them to death (teen years were hard though..) I still find it hard to refer to them as he. I take their word for how they say they feel they are male. But this muddies my idea of what it means to be masculine.

Hey everyone, congrats to us for reaching this milestone that I arbitrarily decided is important. Yay numbers! As a reward for being one of the first 150, each of you can choose one of my books to have for free. Just comment below with the title of the book you want! List here: https://theinspirationallifestyle.com/dan-munros-books/

It's really important that you learn how to drop that urge, that tendency, to defend yourself. This is particularly true of verbal attacks. It's different if it's a physical attack, and you're actually in danger. However, most of the time you're not in actual danger and yet, you'll feel this urge come up: when somebody accuses you of something; when they misinterpret you; or, when they make claims about you that are false. You'll feel this real urge to speak up and defend yourself and, in doing so, you won’t realize two things. First, you don't need to defend yourself. If you don't defend yourself nothing bad happens. Nothing bad happens! Unless you are in a court of law, you don't have to defend yourself from perceived or real verbal attacks. Nothing bad will happen if you don't respond to verbal attacks. Second, you are actually making the situation worse when you get defensive. So, if you can just stop, take a breath, and just say something like: "Well, if you want to believe that you can." You'll feel the pressure get relieved, and you'll also realize that your new response is the most effective response anyway.