"Fragile Masculinity": 40 Men Whose Masculinity Was So Fragile And Toxic They Had To Be Shamed Online

Many of these, let's call them, statements seem to stem from men's frustration with communicating with women, especially romantically. A majority of the fellas we see in the pictures view it as some sort of power struggle where they must have the upper hand. While this dynamic might be suitable to some couples, by thinking that everyone must acknowledge it they're setting themselves up for conflict as often people are looking for the complete opposite.

"Vulnerability is the key to intimacy," Robert Taibbi, who is a licensed clinical social worker with nearly five decades of experience, told Bored Panda.

"It is about stepping outside your comfort zone and saying what is difficult to say. It is not about the content—what you actually say, but stepping up and saying what is difficult. Often the other person doesn't realize the risk you are taking, so you need to talk about this as well."

According to Taibbi, "too many men feel hurt but hold it in—it eventually builds up causing some explosion that they feel bad about and then try to sweep under the rug."

"The key is to talk about problems as they arise, to talk about you and your emotions, avoid the blame and getting into the weeds of whose reality is right," the author of Doing Family Therapy, said. "Help the other person know what you are most sensitive to and what you need most from the beginning, and not sweep problems under the rug — solve them."

Taibbi thinks that some of the most common insecurities men experience in romantic relationships revolve around not feeling accepted, feeling rejected, or doing something wrong that will cause the other person to pull away or end the relationship: "If I am honest and vulnerable will you listen and hear what I am saying?" "Can you appreciate what I'm doing for you?"

Nowadays, however, 63% of young men (ages 18-29) report being single, compared with 34% of women in the same age group.

Psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, writer, and social critic Susie Orbach, agress that vulnerabilities unaddressed, often unknown or unnamed by the individual, can end up being expressed in brittleness and toughness.

"Being able to acknowledge uncertainties to oneself and to others is ... an aspect of strength," she wrote in The Guardian. "Cleaving to something unnamed that was missed can produce anger or despair. Boys didn't anticipate that there would be a rupture in nurture as they became adults; in other words, ... they wouldn't be able to simply rely on women's solicitations and [comfort] without showing more of themselves. Girls knew that they were 'supposed' to give support but were growing up to think of economic and emotional equality, not protection."

Furthermore, Orbach believes that machismo doesn't achieve the desired effect of putting women in their place.

"That ship has sailed," she said. "It has offered a fundamentalist pull which endangers all of us; men, women, children, non-binary and trans people. It's time for a new conversation that opens the door to speaking of vulnerability and nurture as essential for all of us, and as an aspect of strength – as an antidote to toxicity."