I am male with resultant masculinity. Sometimes, I don’t want to talk about my feelings and my emotions. It’s not toxic repression sure to fester and boil and explode, only diffusible by constantly and openly expressing emotions in word. Nope, it’s not unhealthy denial.

The reason I don’t want to talk about my feelings and my emotions is because I’m not an identity tiktoker and I don’t spend every moment thinking about myself and deconstructing myself and analyzing myself and considering myself and defining myself. Most often, my strongest emotion all day is “I’m really hungry.” And I express that emotion by eating something delicious.

Nourishment is not toxic masculinity. It’s okay to keep this to myself.