Masculinity and Vulnerability

Today's Tool: Vulnerability

It’s a quiet moment. You’re at the gym, the air thick with the clanging of weights and muffled conversations. A friend walks up to you and smiles, but you can see something’s off. His usual bright expression is dim, his eyes distant. He brushes off your concern with, “I’m good,” as many men are conditioned to do. It’s an everyday occurrence—this suppression, this unspoken code of silence.

I once stood in that silence myself. I remember the day my youngest brother, Austin, called me. There was nothing extraordinary about the call, but looking back, I wish I’d asked more questions, pressed him on what was really going on. We spoke about his friends and future—topics we often discussed—but the undercurrent of pain in his voice slipped by unnoticed. I didn’t realize he was wrestling with an invisible weight. A month later, Austin was gone. For men like Austin, vulnerability is a threat, an enemy. Society teaches men to wear armor that blocks their emotions, to avoid appearing weak at all costs. But this armor is suffocating. For Austin, as for so many men, the cost of concealing that pain became unbearable.

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I see you,

Ethan