[Iksander]

Growing up as a male in modern America - I can relate to you. The idea that you are a 'wussy' if you acknowledge your feelings is a predominate idea.

It is a fine line to draw though - I mean, what makes us up as men? I always thought it was our absoluteness and solidity. Our will power and strength.

A good book on being a man without being an butt-head and without losing the essence of your masculinity, is: 'The Way of the Superior Man' - David Deida, highly recommended as a personal development book.

Fear? I always found that by confronting fear with curiosity - it almost immediately overrides it (Pandora's Box, Curiosity killed the Cat). It is far from any sort of a negative connotation, too. When you really are curious even in the face of something scary, then you are giving less attention to the 'fear' feeling and more attention to the 'is this something that will further my evolution or not?' and that feeling attracts a whole lot less of the really unwanted thing. Really, if you die because of curiosity - isn't that a better thing than dying because of fear? (to me, it sounds like the most fulfilling death there could ever be...)