As much as I like to think I''m not typical in terms of my identity - whether it's gender or nationality or demographic - I'm forced to concede that in some stereotypical ways I represent traits common to my gender. This despite the various feminist waves and my own attempts to be progressive and enlightened. I can see the appeal of self-definition when it comes to gender identity, but in the broadest terms, I still recognize  well-defined patterns of masculinity and femininity in the culture. This is of course subject to exception and shadings, but we're talking prevailing winds. Men I know tend to be less verbal, and are reluctant to express certain vulnerabilities. Yes, still. Women on the whole are more empathetic, for example. Men as they get older tend to become even more inwardly focused  - especially if they aren't counterbalanced by a life partner. Some traits of maleness I hold onto tightly and even cherish. Suffering in silence then overcoming that internal struggle still feels noble to me instead of destructive a lot of the time - that part of me having been well nourished by decades of cultural exemplars from Hemingway to Humphrey Bogart. (Of course women suffer uncomplainingly too - often more so - but this doesn't fit the particular mythology I'm describing.) But for all the ways I'm comfortable being hard there are others where I relish being soft. I believe that you can never be too kind to animals, to name one thing, and can't abide guns or hunting or a certain kind of engine-revving masculinity that can't go out of style fast enough. If I'm thankful for anything it's that the definitions for all gender identities has been broadened in the last half-century and continues to encompass more and more multitudes.