In Brene Brown's TED talk, "Listening to Shame" , she talks about the power of shame. It's a speech that is widely popular among women. But towards the end of her address, she shares an observation a man made to her about shame and gender - 'Men are just as controlled by shame because we're ashamed of weakness'. It would only appear that men are shameless. But it turns out they're just as afraid of being shamed as much as anyone else. It's just their shame has one specific dimension - a man is desperately afraid of appearing weak, helpless, and dependent. And a man would rather isolate himself than expose himself to anything that appears like weakness. This rings true with me. In eastern and western culture, masculine vulnerability is frowned upon. Men don't show weakness because weakness and manhood are incompatible. In eastern culture, sharing weakness, pain, sadness or failure is a threat to community. Vulnerability risks eroding t