clipped from: powerandpowerlessness.typepad.com   
Relationship conflicts are a universal source of pain and confusion.

The vulnerability of men is one of society’s best-kept secrets. Men are expected to provide and protect and solve all problems. They aren’t supposed to feel needy, vulnerable or inadequate like women. Yet, in some ways, men are more vulnerable than women.


As early as five years of age, males are more likely than females to kill themselves. This difference increases through life. By age 22, men are six times more likely and by age 85 fifteen times more likely to kill themselves. When a relationship breaks up, the man is 11 times more likely than the woman to commit suicide.


To "toughen" males, society directs an astonishing level of violence against them.

Laughing at someone’s pain is a sign of dissociation, and both girls and boys learn to deny male vulnerability from an early age.

Consequently, boys learn to respond with anger, even rage, when they feel vulnerable or detect vulnerability in other males.