It's one of the reasons I've taken a liking to Diogenes' Cynicism, seeing past the "social norms" and dumb social organization ideas humans come up with.

Thank you for pointing this out; this has always bothered me!

I mean it’s a great way to flush out awful candidate partners

I'd say the opposite. It's an obvious red flag that someone doesn't open up about anything.

Show a little vulnerability and see how disinterested they get

Not my experience, but something not too different.

In every relationship, someone has to be the safe harbor for the other to withstand the occasional emotional crisis. This role can and should be taken in turns so that each one gets each other's back. But when your insecurity/vulnerability matches with the other person, it takes a freaking HUGE amount of emotional intelligence and energy to be the person that tanks the crisis this one time and open up about this later, when the other person is ready to take turns.

What I observe in practice is that people (man and women) only learn how to deal with this situation in two extreme ways: 1) spiral into the storm along the partner - which is a fuckup because the other person is not ready for this; 2) suck it up forever and ever - which builds up resentment long-term.

There is a middle path. It takes time to acquire it, it takes even more time to teach it to a partner, but it's one of the main ingredients of constructive conflict resolution.

I think there's less generational transmission of this notion as the aged die off

Take about 10% off there squirrelly Oka

My theory is that because our brains are “wired” to be women, T causes our emotions to be more out of whack. Anecdotally, I’ve met a couple of trans men who felt more attuned to their emotions after starting T.

But yeah, I know what you mean about feeling scared. I’m really glad your transition is going well. Keep on shining your light!

You must be swift as a coursing river!🎶

All your symptoms are caused by being a woman!

Half a year later: just kidding, it was cancer, too late now.

This is great context. Particularly as it highlights the differences in gendered experiences. For women it's in some ways a demand for attractiveness while for men it's more of a literal command that is more likely to be used in self policing (that is men policing masculine expectations of other men). Also notable that both sentiments seem to be more likely to come from men.

Man sideways!

I think you're being a little disingenuous. The two conversations are not only both important, but they're both closely related to each other. It's impossible to talk about the mental well being of half the population without the other half coming up, since a lot of the problems and their solutions are the same.