benEzra
Moderator Emeritus
Are all those Navy fighter pilots who are uniformly scared poopless when doing their first carrier night landing, just a bunch of sissy wusses, then?And regardless of what some women in modern society may want to believe men and women ARE different. There are standards of manliness that most men understand and most women never will and one of them is men don't quake in their boots and lose their water just because they're doing something unfamiliar - especially if what they're doing isn't inherently dangerous.
I'd strongly recommend the book Deep Survival, by Laurence Gonzales. He profiles a lot of people who have pulled through and kept their wits under the most extreme situations. If you want to question the masculinity of the guys in there who were SCARED when in unfamiliar situations, read the book and be my guest, but I think it's fair to say that such criticism would be grossly unjustified. It's an excellent read, and very helpful in understanding the fight-or-flight response.
http://www.deepsurvival.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Survival...3495642?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186681536&sr=1-1
Now, there is a stereotype in American culture that says that men are supposed to pretend not to be scared when they actually are scared, and that to admit being scared when one is doing something unfamiliar that one perceives to be dangerous is somehow "unmanly." I think that pretention is not helpful, and definitely not in any way inherently masculine. IMHO, it takes a bigger man to admit you are afraid of something than to convince yourself you aren't.
The guy in the article thought that shooting was inherently dangerous, based on a lifetime of guns-R-bad propaganda. The fact that he's misinformed doesn't mean his reaction isn't normal, given what he has been taught about guns. Our job is to gently correct those misperceptions, not blast him for his failings, real or perceived.
I've had the privilege of changing a few people's minds on the gun issue, some of whom initially approached the issue with the same misperceptions and bias as this guy. NOT ONE of them was won over by harshly worded criticisms, insults, or personal attacks; every single one that changed their mind, did so as a result of logical, rational persuasion.