ABOUT A MAN<br >Would get up at night，<br >go to the mirror and ask:<br >Who s here?<br >Would turn， sink to his knees<br >and stare at snow falling blameless<br >in the night air.<br >Would cry:<br >Heaven， look down!<br >See? No one is here.<br >Would take off hls clothes and say:<br >My flesh is a grave with nothing inside.<br >Would lean to the mirror:<br >You there， you， wake me，<br >tell me none of what Fve said is true.<br > --Mark Strand1<br >Women bend and men break. The blueprint for masculin-<br >ity is a blueprint for self-destruction. It is a process so<br >deeply embedded in the male consciousness， however， that<br >awareness of its course and its end has been lost. The mas-<br >culine imperative， the pressure and compulsion to perform，<br >to prove himself， to dominate， to live up to the "masculine<br >ideal~min short， to "be a man"msupersedes the instinct to<br >survive. His psychological fragility and volatility may even<br >cause him to destroy a lifetime of work and relationships<br >in a momentary impulse.<br > The diagnosis of chauvinism is superficial. More often it<br >is a gross and misleading distortion. Closer examination of<br > 5<br ><br >