Talking about yourself

[Emiliano]

Depends on who's asking. And I am not an open book. But it depends a lot on who it is I am talking to. I don't open up about my life to casual acquaintances, people at work, or the like. Only men I consider friends. And the ones I like. If a right guy asks me, I talk to him.

Feelings are a different subject from opening up about yourself though, the way I see it (in this sense you asked about two very different things that don't overlap with one another in one and the same breath). I am past the phase of my life where I couldn't own up about my feelings even to myself, much rather anybody else. It is weird, but I have come to understand that it is healthy and necessary to feel. That you have to let yourself feel, whether it is a positive or a negative emotion, both are necessary parts. You can't avoid feeling things anyway. You can only avoid owning up to them. And denying is the same as denying yourself, or being ashamed of part of yourself. And why would you need to be like that?



Why do you ask? I just wonder how you came up with this question.

I'm curious how others are. How people deal with opening up to others, how others deal with insecurities in doing that - or how they overcame them, if they felt them at all. Correct or not, I'm aware of the stereotype of masculinity that men are meant to be strong and not reveal emotions, but that there's also a stereotype, correct or not, that gay men are meant to be more able to vocalize these things. So I'm interested in how the men here actually are currently and the journeys taken to be comfortable, if that is the case.