Thank you @sean-king for this thoughtful and well written post. I'm a father of two young boys and I often worry about them for this specific reason. Perhaps I'm partially to blame as I have also fallen ill to the overly cautious parent disease. I catch myself limiting their imaginations and physicality by proclaiming "you'll hurt yourself!". This is merely an expression of my boys' budding masculinity.

Personally I'm a fish out of water around my social and professional circles. I'm the guy who always proclaims how it was so much better when I was young. The school system is awful. It continues to emasculate our boys. Even the rare one or two male teachers perpetuate the notion of 'toxic masculinity'.

I don't know where it will all end up (Perhaps the West will be conquered by a 'greater' nation one day that's retained it's masculinity - I surely hope not). In the home I'm fair about it. I generally try to let my kids see that being a boy/man is a good thing. I encourage (when it's appropriate) their goofy behavior making fart noises and playing rough. It's the least I can do. But I do wonder if they'll be chastised at school for just being masculine little boys.

What ever happened to tolerance and diversity? I guess it's a one way street.

Cheers!