Years before I transitioned, I once told my mom, very casually, that I thought skirts looked comfortable and fun to wear. Her reaction was instantaneous and harsh. "PLEASE don't let me hear my son talking like that!" were her exact words. When people like Ben Shapiro and....

Candace Owens point to a man in a dress and make illusions to the literal downfall of western civilization, I think it's time to admit that the problem of being forced into strict gender roles is not an issue only women face. I remember growing up as a boy and internalizing...

...all those messages about what a "real man" is supposed to be. It's psychologically damaging. Think about how banal it is now to see a woman wearing pants, but so many people literally freak out when a man wears a skirt, dress, makeup, etc. Men are pigeonholed into this...

...extremely narrow definition of what it means to be a man, and that definition is often full of toxic, self-destructive behaviors. The only emotional release valve society gives men is anger and aggression. When it's that or nothing, it WILL be that. It shouldn't...

...have to be a bold statement when a man wears a dress or makeup. It should be as mundane as women wearing pants. But, until we stop locking men into this rigid gender role, we're going to keep producing men who are aggressive and emotionally unavailable.

It's important to remember that these "men don't do that" messages are rooted in misogyny and the idea that women are the weaker, lesser sex. That's a big and important focus of feminism. There's also so much more that could be said on this subject.