51 Of The Most Ridiculous Ways Fragile Masculinity Manifested In Men

My father promised to wash the dishes every day for the rest of his natural life because when he bought the wrong kind of kitchen sink to replace one that had broken, he was too embarrassed to take it back and admit to the guys at the plumbing store that his wife had told him to return the sink he had just bought. And he still washes the dishes every day, more than 40 years since.

Refusing to let me open doors. It is nice to have someone hold doors open sometimes- especially if I am carrying a big bag or in heels. I know some people are flattered by this and it is a nice gesture, regardless of gender.

But I met a guy who simply refused to let me get near a door handle and would race me to hold it open when I was only an arms length away from one. On top of that, he would not walk through it if I held it open for him, doing that awkward standoff with an open door in front of us. Seriously dude, I don’t think you are less of a man for letting me get doors and I am perfectly capable of opening doors myself!

This one seems a little more subjective because it’s just how I viewed the event and I could be wrong, but I just can’t find any other explanation for it.
I work the front desk at a gym, once a year we shut down for a week for deep cleaning, repainting and any general maintenance work, if you’re scheduled you still go in, but instead of doing your normal job you do a very basic maintenance thing. Last year during this time I came in and was told to just find something to do since they didn’t have any real need in any of the areas. I noticed that there was a group moving exercise machines around and they all happened to be men. Now I don’t think it was done intentionally, and i don’t find it inherently offensive that it was only men, but since I had nothing else to do I thought I’d go join them, since it was just such a stereotypical thing. They did not seem to be happy about this, they constantly insisted that there was no way I’d be able to lift/move things myself, rushed to grab something I was clearly already on my way to get, and actually started calling me by a more feminine version of my name (not actually my name but for example: If u went by Pat, they started calling me Patty). It just totally threw me, these machines, while heavy, are made to be easily moved but they seemed to feel like their masculinity had been insulted by the fact that I was doing it just as easily as they were.

Way back when I was a temp, a guy in an office I worked in briefly got seriously pissed off that I could type faster than him. Note I said I worked there briefly. It was supposed to be a few weeks gig but they said they didn't need me after two days. Too funny.

My husband takes the wrapper off of the strawberry chapstick I buy for him so he won’t be carrying around a pink chapstick container at work.

His coworkers made fun of him for driving my car to work one day instead of his truck. I drive a black sports car that is far from feminine.

I don’t know if this one counts for anything but I helped my husband fix some of the plumbing under our house one day and his coworkers said that I shouldn’t be doing that work and that they should have called them instead because women shouldn’t work on plumbing.

He gets made fun of at work because he helps me with chores and has told his coworkers that we are on a budget and trying to save for retirement.

Coworker asked me out. I said no. He threw a tantrum about me leading him on. I was just trying to be friendly to him because he was new, and I noticed he was extremely shy and felt uncomfortable with new work environment. Well, apparently it was a bad idea.

My friend's son was about one, and he was trying on (women's) shoes because a bunch of people were over, as kids do. My friend said that he hoped the kid didn't grow up to be gay.

My answer happened this week. A man at my work was being very condescending about something we disagreed on. For reference, he is in his 60s and I'm in my late 20s. I ended up standing up for myself and telling him that he needed to communicate more directly with me to avoid us arguing and he replied "ok then." to my very neutrally worded email. I then had to email him again asking him a question about what we were arguing about and he replied "at this point, I don't care." and is refusing to speak to me because I stood up to him.

Had a coworker tell me yesterday that I intimidate him because i’m almost as tall as him. (i’m female, about 5’6).

My boss cannot go anywhere without a gun on him. He's basically textbook. Ex-military, ex-cop, smaller guy, gun nut.

I'm a bartender.

If I had a dollar for the number of times a guy has ordered a cocktail based on listed ingredients that sound tasty to him... only to ask me to put the drink in a "many" glass, or if the color was too girly, pass it off to his girlfriend/wife/any-female-in-sight, and then ask me if can make him something less girly... I'd probably have about a hundred bucks at least.

This doesn't include times a dudes *friend's* have made fun of him, for ordering something that sounds good, but the color of the drink or the glass ware is deemed too 'girly'.

I even had a guy tell me to put his Manhattan in a rocks glass. When I told him, "You're a wise man. It is easier to carry this way, and won't spill..." His response was something like, "naw, I just don't want to look like a woman carrying around that pansy glass..." Um, ok then.

Broke up with his girlfriend who had hair above her shoulders because he refused to date a girl with shorter hair than him and his was long.
Another guy, when my girlfriend's sister was correcting him on something he was completely wrong, knew nothing about and talking out of his arse about in a pub, proceeded to shout "I AM THE SMARTEST PERSON IN THIS PUB!"

This just happened on Monday. I was doing bent over rows next to a guy who was deadlifting. He said "Do you powerlift?" "yes" "cool! It isn't common to see a woman bent over rowing, so I kinda figured". We get to chatting and it's going great. We talk for close to 15 minutes, each breaking to do a set and then coming right back to conversation. He told me his max weights for the 3 main lifts, squats being at 275lbs for a set of 3. I praised him on those numbers and told him to keep going. At the very end of the conversation he asked me what my squat max was. I said "391lbs". He choked on his words in an audible cough and said "Did you say 3...?" I nodded. He actually gathered up his things and said "alright, well, you have a nice workout" and left the gym. :/.

As a male massage therapist I've seen some stunning displays of fragile masculinity. Cause, ya know, getting a massage as a man and enjoying it when your therapist is also a man MUST mean you are gay.

Most of the time this plays out in people requesting female therapists. One time this dude came in with his girlfriend, completed consent forms even went to bathroom and came back. However when he saw that they would be getting worked on by two male therapists he started backing away slowly saying "Babe, Babe, Babe". The girl goes over to him and they quietly talk for a bit then she approaches us and just says that " something came up" and they need to go attend to it immediately.

My ex boyfriend refused to buy lotion for himself and instead put shaving cream on his dry skin the day it was really bothering him.

I know guys who get all weird and defensive because my husband took my last name when we got married. Like, they feel threatened because another dude took his wife's name. As if that somehow reflects on them as men. Idk. Some men seem to think everything is somehow about them.

I went to a shooting range with my SO and best friend, both are men.

We just wanted regular silhouette targets, but the regular targets they had left were pink. The men at the counter apologized to my SO and friend, and asked if they wanted to try the other targets. I was baffled.

I’m a doctor in the US and someone came in to see me about a year ago. About halfway through the appointment he told me that women can’t be trusted as doctors and my place was in the kitchen.

I was a manager at a fast food restaurant in college. One of my employees, also a college student, talked about how he was going to make so much money once he got a job in his field. He never listened to me when I would ask him to do something, and would instead talk about how he would be making more money than me someday, so nothing I said mattered, even though I was his direct supervisor.

One day I was sick of it, and told him that right now, I make more money than him and that he has to listen to me or I would send him home. He got really offended and reported me to Corporate, who actually listened to both sides of the story and dismissed his complaint.

I work in a comic store. you can only imagine the distress and terror that comes with a) being a feeeeeeeemale fan of something macho, or b) the encroachment of a comic book about a teenage girl on the new-comic-book stands. I have met a few dudes who don't even like Batman to have a romantic interest, because 'that softens his character'.