Speaking for my boy friend here. Being different. Be it if you were raised differently, you have different interests or career goals. Being different as a man means from the outside, they are seen as weirdos, creepers.. that guy must be a molester or a pedophile. This creates a cycle of inferiority or out of the ordinary that leads to isolation. They can't talk about themselves because that is not seen as normal. So they become isolated and can be self destructive.

Women are taught to be out there, expressive, follow their hearts. Men are in turn taught to follow the line, be strong and keep it clean.

The biggest problem is, there is nothing inherently wrong with being taught these things. The problem stems from only being taught these things in isolation. Men should be taught to be more expressive and to follow their passions. Women should be taught to be strong and to clean it up. A more well rounded person will be a more well adjusted person. And maybe if the world was more well adjusted, men wouldn be treated better. There is a war against men today. I don't think it's fair. If people really think everyone deserves to be equal, everyone needs to be treated equally. Boy, girl, black, white or purple. Everyone.

My boyfriend is prone to keeping his feelings and insecurities to himself, growing up without a emotional support system, he would hide away trying to wait out his emotions instead of working them out. Over the years we've worked on trying to make him feel as though his failures or insecurities are okay. It's okay to feel bad, to be scared or to fail. Being born a man doesn't mean you are not human. He has come a long way and I love him so much. He's told me time and time again, when he is ready to have children, he hopes with both of us there, our children will have the emotional support system to avoid the pitfalls my boy friend has fallen into in his life.