> Women have a strong expectation for men to be this way too. Agreed. Although I would say that mothers tend to be more emotionally available than fathers to t

> Women have a strong expectation for men to be this way too. Agreed. Although I would say that mothers tend to be more emotionally available than fathers to their sons. The problem is that "momma's boy" is considered an insult. (Incidentally, there's been some discussion in the comments to this article about divorce and child custody, i.e., which parent should get custody. But nobody seems to be discussing which parent the child would prefer to live with.) Regarding women's attitudes toward men's emotional needs, there's likely a crucial distinction between "son" and "sexual partner", where neediness is much more acceptable in the former. > I think it's a fools errand to try and uproot instinct. Disagreed. What separates humans from the rest of the animals are civilization, rationality, science. We should aspire to more, not less.