We're leading ordinary lives in the real world, yet for some reason we have a hankering to be like them. It's important to understand why there are so many women who are suffering with eating disorders. First, it can help us avoid falling into the same pitfalls, and, secondly, it can help us feel empathy for those who do suffer from these disorders. For men and boys, the pressure to conform to the gender stereotype takes the form of pressure to do or act in certain ways. Physical ability is very important in becoming a man, and it is often used to prove one's manhood.
Men are violent to other men.
When we raise a child to take the pain, keep it to himself, and to not show any feelings, we're training an emotional time bomb. But there are a lot of other forms of violence we don't normally think of. Take initiations, for instance. Heat liniment is poured down the front of the new team member's shorts in the locker room. One student in Brookfield, N.S. was reportedly sent to hospital with second degree burns.