The Measure Of A Man

I'm a liberal-minded guy when it comes to sketching out the parameters of gender roles. I feel that everyone, XX or XY, deserves an equal shot at whatever they want in society, but even so I cannot shake much of the tradition definition of what makes a man. As I understand the notion, a man is in dereliction of his duties if he does not make a living based on his wits or brawn or both. It's no longer necessarily the case that he carries his wife and family on his back, although it obviously once was and still happens. Men are also understood to be tough, resourceful and resolute. This conventional definition has had some bits stripped away, but is substantially intact if my observations are correct.

I know what I feel, anyway. I feel like more of a man when one or both of two things is happening: firstly, when I am earning a living. When I am engaged in good and honest work and getting paid for it, I swell with some amount of pride at the knowledge that I am pulling my own weight. Be it politically correct or not, I feel like a man when I am entirely self-sufficient. That's not really accurate anymore since for longer than I've been alive women have been managing the same feat with great aplomb, but I can't help feelings. I can only mitigate the unfortunate ones.