Vulnerability is a Poor Bedfellow

Most of my readers are aware of my stand on the myth of male vulnerability. Weakness is not strength, but the Village of the Feminine Imperative would have us believe that the more a man displays honest signs of vulnerability, the more endearing he’ll be to women. Men believe that crying, or being more emotionally sensitive, or anything that makes him identify with the feminine, is a form of this endearing Game. Vulnerability is something women are expected to respect in a man.

While adopting this mindset may open a man up to ridicule (and unspoken disgust in women), this is not true vulnerability. The Village might try to convince a man he’s being brave by avoiding conventional masculinity, but this emasculating vulnerability is nothing compared to what a man has to lose from real vulnerability.

What average men miss is that the ultimate form of vulnerability a man can engage in is ‘catching feelings’ for, or emotionally investing himself in, a woman. This is especially so if that man’s conditioning makes him oblivious to the risks of that vulnerability.

Nothing leaves a man more vulnerable in life, love, family, career, finances, and power over the direction of his life than to invest himself in a woman. The very thought of surrendering his life’s imperative to trust that a woman won’t exercise the unimaginable control and potential for damage she has in his life is a vulnerability no woman will recognize or acknowledge. Nor will the sacrifices that come from this vulnerability be something she has a capacity to appreciate.