So you’re in a relationship and stuff is going swell. He likes you and you like him and you’re both mad busy but making it work and it’s smiles all around. He met your friends and they all loved him because he’s got adorable dimples or a great fashion sense or a lovable demeanor. Now, it’s time to meet his friends.

One of the problematic after-effects of western maleness is a complete obsession with making sure everyone knows that we have no ‘feminine’ aspects. Whether it’s because we want everyone to know that we ‘totally aren’t a pansy‘ or because we watched G.I Joe too much (if that’s possible), aspects of our personality that might be construed as ‘female’ (of course, problematic since, as we all know, gender is performance) scare the crap out of us.

Guys eventually (usually) grow out of this, realize that everyone has their own stuff, and it doesn’t make you any less of a man to cry once and a while or to love something beyond ‘tail and cash!’ Maternal and Paternal instincts have many similarities, after all.

What totally sucks is this ‘phase’ strikes right around 18-24, and if you’re dating a college guy, there’s a decent chance he’s got a little bit of this in him. It doesn’t mean he’s a cretin in waiting, but it can make meeting his friends difficult at times because they are suffering from UBLS, or Unrequited Bro Love Syndrome (pronounced “Ubles“) Read More »