Am I being man enough ?

Masculinity , toughness, resilience, rough look , hunk, dark ,tall ,straight orientation , appropriate beard , your gait ,curse words, josh a.k.a anger and a lot more to add to this list .It is not a exhaustive list.

What have you figured out so far from the list mentioned above ?

Do they all point to a common thing ?Yes, they do . The qualifications of being a MAN , not a good / Excellent/Saviour man but just a MAN.

I know we all are from a privileged section , well bred with empathy and passion , infused with morals and brought up in the most careful way possible . But even after all this we fail to escape from the societal influence , of what they demand us to be irrespective of the moral bubble in which we have been brought up.

As a man , I realise and empathize with every man out there who had failed to tick boxes in ALL or MOST of the these stereotypical standards. I know how it feels that you are not being man enough …

If you are empathetic , you are called sissy. If you are skinny , you are bullied. If you are homosexual , you are harassed emotionally and physically. If you don’t say curse words , maybe you are not a man in the real sense .If you are short , you are always intimidated by other men. If you show way too much expression / feeling , you are probably too girly. If you wear too flamboyant colours , you are considered not a gentleman but just a hippie/faggot in disguise.

How it’s possible to squeeze the population of men all-over the globe into these societal confirming standards.

To the bros/ men out there , aren’t you tired of pretending what you are not ? They’ll judge you eventually because we judge them too in one or the other way ! A paradox … Right ?

You don’t cease to be a man even if you don’t have any quality mentioned above. Learn to embrace the hatred / opinion of others and just keep going .

At the end of the day , you are alone and all what matters to you should be , Whether you were yourself enough today ? It’s a marathon ,not a sprint and yes you’ll eventually learn to love.