Efemi-phobia

So...Are the interest that you have what defines you?

Earlier tonight I was in the John Vianney common Room watching the Olympic games with the guys. The luge, speed racing, all was good and filled with adrenaline and the testosterone was getting rather thick for the United States...When low and behold (gasp! shock! horror!) Figure skating comes on. I like figure skating and I am not afraid to say so, and fight vehemently to keep it on...but that does not matter in this dorm of guys filled with a fear of (shock horror) watching such a feminine thing as figure skating...ugh...

I am tired of the common conception among guys that manliness means that you cannot have an interest in certain things. That figure skating is somehow something that is just wrong for a guy to like. Liking these certain "feminine things" does not affect your masculinity. Masculinity is an interior strength, of purpose, character, and of personal integrity. What you like has not basis...because that is in large part an exterior part of you. What you do may define you (ie show your character), but what you like has nothing to do with it at all. Masculinity is not affected by what you like, but how you live your life and certain "men" need to learn that.

This notion that a guy having finer tastes then the majority of his boorish and unimaginative fellows somehow means that he lacks in masculinity is bogus. I don't like sports, I find it boring and I hate it when people get so competitive (its a game guys...its not your life!!!), that's just me, if you like it then its fine. I like figure skating and would rather draw, play music, or (gasp, shock, horror!) watch the Style Channel, HGTV or...Sense and Sensiblity. I appreciate beauty and I find it in a lot of things...but not in sports. So there you go...now you know. I am a man, and having conventionally "feminine" tastes does not make me any less of a man.

That's what I think, so there you have it!