If "vulnerability" means being in touch with and able to display emotion, than I say that women are comfortable with that. The realm of "emotion" is a familiar friend to them. I'll go farther. I'd say that women are supposed to be vulnerable--soft, penetrable, fragile and weak.
It takes courage for women to be hard, impenetrable, durable and strong. That's flying in the face of the stereotype. Men are supposed to be those things.
John's gender bias is showing when he claims that "real women" have the courage to be vulnerable, and that the proof of their womanliness can be seen in their relative vulnerability.
Poppycock! Real women are all sorts of things, and maybe vulnerable too. It depends upon the woman.
I've got a radical notion! Let's have the courage to allow all human beings to be human--blessed with a full range of whatever emotions and feelings they need and want to express.
We've got to get over trying to fit men and women into a narrow ideal of gender reality; but if we're going with a stereotype, John, I'd say that it takes real courage to be a vulnerable man.
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