Well this proves I should take my posts a peg longer with preemptive details, even more than I do already.

This is hardly an "issue of the day".

Well there you go. Step outside your enlightened group of friends, family, etc. Explore. See what you find.

This is very much a mental health issue as I no doubt made clear in the post. Alright, maybe the use of the word feminism could trigger a reaction, but a reasonable-minded person would not get wildly worked up over the use of it in a slightly less than glorifying context; and the intent was certainly not to divide. Talking about the opposite gender with respect to the other is a given to describe how these issues are very much gender-based (and this is in a Gender forum no less). If this post is indeed divisive, I can only say sorry and that's about it. If you must, close the thread and never let it see the light of day or move it elsewhere. Do what you must. If it remains, I'll field whatever ire comes my way. I truly don't care.

Does what explain away the violent behavior that occurs mostly in men? The repression of emotions? I did not state that for that reason it automatically accounts for all violent behavior. But it certainly doesn't help. And I never denied this behavior among men going back eons. There were many oppressors with the need to dominate; we were more barbaric in general in times before us quite obviously. We've evolved however, and arguably, here in the United States, we might consider women the more evolved/more enlightened gender (it's just that they're not doing a whole hell of a lot to help in shattering destructive expectations of masculinity. And that's where my finger-wagging starts.). Look, if I didn't state it directly, I will state it now: men and women, with their furthering of 'toxic' (despise that word) gender roles, are both at fault.

Are you serious here, DocJohn, or are you being obtuse? I'm not sure how much you combed through my post or how much you read in its entirety, which I cannot blame you for; I probably wouldn't read my posts in their entirety given their length. I've explained to you how this been a hindrance in life. Let's start with the aforementioned: not being able to express emotions as openly. Expected to 'tough it out' and the like. Thankfully, I've had no machismo-spouting father, but encountering the need to wall off one's emotions is something many males will encounter in life. Maybe not specifically you, DocJohn. But I've witnessed males being excoriated left and right for even so much as expressing perceived weakness: being unmercifully called a '*****', '*****', etc. -- all the emasculating terms I already pointed out: and these are employed by both females and males alike as shaming tactics. Just being a bystander to this, the need to be less emotional gets stamped shut into you as a male; not as a given, but it certainly has trickled down to me and others I know. That affects me plenty. I've incurred plenty of psychological harm from being privy to it or bearing witness to it, and your incredulity here is almost kind of invalidating--maybe that wasn't the intent; I cannot say.

The fact that much of this is (normally) unable to be expressed without shrieks of misogyny is also quite daunting.

As others have mentioned you feel a sort of shame attached to being male. Your sex drive is, as again, I already said, to be wielded as a terrible weapon. I certainly feel the effects from that. And not being sexual enough nets one difficulty. I've felt plenty of pressure for not explicitly displaying interest in females. Sure sure, yes yes, of course females may experience this in varying degrees. But doubly so for men. Someone might say "women experience that too!" Okay. Fine. And that's terrible. But I'm stressing the gravity even more for more habitual recipients.

It hasn't stopped life, but it's made it considerably more daunting. It's made therapy harder. But this is also not exclusively how it directly relates to me. This is just a broad topic to be discussed, and surely that is allowed. I've seen plenty of threads where dissenting opinions appear.

I can almost guarantee that if this were a female decrying or calling into question the same things/broadcasting their opinion on it, they would not be subjected to nearly the same scrutiny. It's important to bring up double-standards, so we can get on the path to leveling the playing fields more: if you're such a believer in a thing. I think we've made great strides toward equalizing the sexes, despite our inherent differences, but feminism with its supremacy - co-opted as a movement that I truly do think initially had the intention of equalizing the sexes (I'll get a lot of **** for this, but that's okay with me. Again: if that inadvertently stirs the pot, okay, then crucify me.) has run amok and taken us tremendous steps backwards. That's why it bears mentioning. It's an integral component in all of this. It's an incredibly popular - albeit gaining a backlash slowly but surely - field of thought that many assign a great deal of importance to and it is continuing the divide among the sexes.