[user104658]

Originally Posted by DemolitionRed

Actually I believe, at least when it comes to emotional vulnerability, men have to hide it better than women. Its normally a man who asks for the first dance, the first date and so on. Its more often the man who proposes to the woman and all those things come with a certain amount of vulnerability.

Men or woman who fear loss are more likely to numb down any chance of feeling emotionally vulnerable. The trouble with that is, when you hide your emotions, people, including your lover, don't get to know the real you, just the person you want them to know.

It is strange that this is still such a social norm, in the modern world of (overall) much more equality. The number of men in their late 20s or even 30s who have NEVER had a real relationship / possibly never had any relationship at all is quite staggering, if you look at anonymous sources like reddit (where people are more inclined to be honest about it, in realz most would just pretend they have experience). But it's relatively unusual for women to reach that age and never have had a partner / have been "pursued" by someone interested.

Me and my wife were musing over high school recently (before we knew each other) and the number of times I mentioned a situation and she was like "Err yeah she clearly LIKED you, you know..." and I'm like "Hmm? Really?" and then thinking about it it seems so obvious now... But as a teenage boy I had absolutely NO idea.