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I Don’t Understand ‘Alpha Males’

The Uvalde shooting is yet another symptom of how this culture is failing men

Amber Fraley
5 min readMay 27, 2022
Image by Jabbacake from Pixabay

When it comes to gun violence, there’s one fact that cannot be ignored — men dominate. Men own most of the guns in the United States and men do most of the shooting. Ninety-nine percent of all mass shooters are male. Over eighty percent of gun murders are committed by men, and guns are the tool of choice when it comes to men committing suicide. In fact, fifty-four percent of all gun deaths in the US are suicides, and the vast majority of gun suicides are committed by men.

Now that I’ve listed those statistics, some men will feel angry and defensive and think I’m “bashing” men. Quite the contrary. I think those numbers are a very real, very painful cry pointing to the horrible way men in America are treated. Men are bullied into confining little heterosexual man-boxes by both men and women in this culture. It’s tough enough being a woman, trying to always be pretty and pleasant and dress nicely for other people, but I can’t imagine how I’d live if I had to keep every emotion sealed up inside me, day after day after day. I can’t even fathom not being allowed to cry or express sadness or disappointment or love for my female friends.

I’d explode.

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Amber Fraley
Amber Fraley

Written by Amber Fraley

Writing about abortion rights, mental illness, trauma, narcissistic abuse & survival, politics. Journalist, novelist, wife, mom, Kansan, repro rights activist.

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