Ooooh… that is a great point. It’s the “Oprah-ization” of our culture. And I agree with you, it’s annoying as heck.

I think once upon a time both men and women were more stoic. The prime example of women being stoic was when your husband or father or son was going off to war and your heart was breaking because you might never see them again, but instead of sobbing all over them and burdening them with that, you kept things as cheerful as you could so they’d have happy memories to take with them.

My POV — I think both men and women need to acknowledge their emotions. That doesn’t mean emoting to everyone around them. It’s not appropriate to share intimate stuff with strangers. But you need to understand yourself. So “toxic masculinity” is when men and boys can’t acknowledge their own feelings. Whether or not they share those feelings with anyone else — that’s their business.

But anyway, once upon a time I think both men and women were less emotive. They didn’t constantly say “I love you”, for example, but they SHOWED you love by their actions. And you know, actions are more meaningful…