Dayna, i understand your dichotomy. I too love being a man and the ramifications of it. I am very competitive in sports, especially tennis, and also love to hang with the "guys". Granted, there are competitive women as well., but i think this is generally seen more as a male trait. I have a great deal of fun being a man.
Kathryn and Kathy L, while I generally am a great admirer of so many of your posts, I think you are both maybe missing a big point here. Whereas males are generally expected to be manly and thus respected for it, so also I think women are expected to be "womanly" (is that a term?). It isn't so much an issue of being a man's man as much as it is expected for each gender to be true themselves. Society expects these norms because that is the definition of a norm; perceptions are indeed preconceived as to how we should be based on our initial gender. A change from this path is what is therefore uncomfortable to those inflexible in their ability to deal with variations such as ourselves.
