Man's Sensitivity and Manliness

Eli Pardue
4/15/08
AP Lang Comp
LaMags

I disagree with the assessment that manliness and sensitivity are incompatible. If being romantic towards women, and doing things like opening the door for the woman to display your strength define manliness, and sensitivity is defined by expressing your feelings towards women and treating them as exact equals, why can there not be a middle ground? Being sensitive to a woman’s feelings does not inherently prevent you from being polite and “manly.” And on the other hand, being manly does not inherently prevent you from sharing your feelings and caring for hers. There is such thing as a hybrid. Sensitivity is not being a bleeding heart that can’t hold a door open without an emotional breakdown. Sensitivity is about having genuine feelings that are not related to a man’s natural lust, and being comfortable with expressing them. Being manly is about treating a woman with respect and dignity, yet still recognizing that she is something to protect. This is where the natural instinct of territorial protection plays in. It goes all the way back to the time when man was more animalistic, and women were considered mates rather than partners. Women were protected because they were literally the cradles of life. The hybrid, however, is the man who can be both protective of women, and open to treating them as equals as well.