
What causes a guys ego to become fragile?


This question is vague: to generalise on the level of a whole gender is strange.. most guys don't have a fragile ego, only some of them do. The people who appear to have a fragile ego, are histrionics who are very passive-aggressive by nature: this affects some number of men, and they are by the clearest to identify as having brittle, fragile egos, who have to have things believed or done by others, in 'their way', surreptitiously directed by the histrionic. This behavior is usually developed starting from childhood, but it can also be developed later by joining a kind of ideology or belief system that has a histrionic style of relating to its own identity. This behavior pattern, is actually far more the norm for women, especially since third wave feminism has been operating within Academia and culture, who for instance, would likely resort to labeling men fragile, if the feminist hadn't succeeded in getting their judgements or narrative overlayed onto others. The feminist in question could be male or female. Intersectionality, and all identity politics in general, is another form of ideology that results in a hybridized kind of histrionic symptoms: all of these people have fragile egos. Although there are also those people who are just naturally occurring histrionics, and can use religion, or positions of authority, in much the same way, to conceal and facilitate their 'fragile ego', and greed for attention/positive-external-validation.
another way of developing a fragile ego, is by being in a relationship with a narccistic pyschopath: as the subtle forms of abuse will eventually program the victim into surrender, and hollowed out compliance.. cluster B personality disorders, including histrionic personality disorder, is very much on the rise in the population, perhaps over 20% in the female population. Having a relationship with such a woman would result in a man becoming fragile... it has been documented in psychological literature, that victims of narccistic exposure, can develop patterns of dysfunction themselves that mimic the perpetrator, this naturally includes histrionics, because histrionic presentation is often comorbid with at least some features of narcissism.
Like any other group of humans, it can be 1 traumatic event or a series of events that accumulate to that effect. But the specifics will vary on personal-history, elements of personality, culture, religion, etc.
Or sometimes, even the strong will have their weakest times. I remember a dark period I had a few years ago: Things I'd consider insignificant in my state now, made my eyes water and forced me to spend a good deal of resolve to abort the crying process A. S. A. P. as not to break-down in public (which cut short my focus on the task at hand, which aggravated the situation). I guess, anything could get to you when even you're questioning your own value as a human-being, what you thought were your personal-strengths have been utterly disabled and even became a major weakness, major things you need aren't going your way like it is for others, you have no allies in an obviously-losing fight that's best kept as only yours alone, derision & rumors follow you wherever you go, and even your own sanity & capacity for sound-judgment has been put to question.
I think this is a greaaaaat questoin. Thanks for asking! I will be happy to give you my opinion. This is a very confusing game, becausset it is not about making him feel bad about himself like mocking of him or making tough jokes. That would be too direct, and you would be the bad in the story so don't do it. You have to do it indirectly. But how? Ego is the internal voice that tells you "how you are". These stories can be good or bad. However, don't get too identified with your own "tags" because the price is high. But going back to the situation. Guys like to think they are great, and even they could create an inflated image of themselves that they are awesome and the best. So when you focus on yourself and your needs, like for example, when he invites you at a party in the night but you have planned to watch a movie with your mom, and you choose to say no because maybe you are tired and don't want to go out, or maybe you just prefer to do what you want instead of being pleassing, then his ego will be fragile. Ego is fragile, those tags that we acquire since childhood, are lies, we can change them whenever we want and are fragil as fuck. He will think " but I am great, why the hell would she prefer to watch tv"? Every time you choose yourself, you punch their ego. And do you know what? They fucking like it and they respect you for doning, and believe me, they want to respect you, in the bottom they expect you to puch their ego.
Not that I don't agree with most of what you say here but... what guy will have his ego bruised because a girl wants to stay at home whatching a movie with her mother? An ego might be hurt if she hangs out with another guy instead. But I can never compete with a family member or even her group of friends, especially while you are not official.
@ThisIsMyOpinion that is just an example, but I think a man ego will be hurt if you decide to do something "boring" instead of being with him.
Like one of the previous replies mentions, ego has no gender. As a woman you may be able to recognize when a man has a fragile ego just as a man would be able to realize when a woman has a fragile ego. There are so many things that develop ego in both men and women. It's simple as nature vs nurture. Upbringing, childhood traumas, economic struggles, nepotism, ethnicity, where a person was raised geographically... the list goes on. Ego is related to self-esteem. I feel like women attack the male ego as a way to demasculate. It's okay for men to be men and it's okay for women to be women. And whatever that means in between. I feel like if a man were to have asked, "why are women's emotions so fragile?" There would be an uproar of hate and disgust by such a question. One can empower themselves by judging others shortcomings.
EDIT: One can NOT empower themselves by judging others shortcomings.
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Well ego by it's very nature is fragile. It's a facade put up to mask someone's insecurities, because if it's natural we don't call it ego we call it confidence, poise, charisma, or some other similar word. So thus the second anything goes against whatever that ego is artificially buffering often a skill of some sort it shatters. It is important to note that this isn't a male specific thing either amd we see it all the time in movies when the 'underdog' conquers an antagonists (perhaps the popular kid in a teen drama) and they become a toxic sputtering mess. Now of you are referring to psychology where the ego is the part of you that wants to live life is naturally very fragile so anything that threatens it and thus us we have to react with extreme force against in order to survive.
I think the same things cause men to collapse as women, they feel powerless, like they have no direction or control over their life.
Call it ego, drive, enthusiasm, it all amounts to the same thing, you have it, or situations change where you don't feel it or have it for a while. You enter a depression, malaise, and stagnate until you snap out and do have the drive to do things for yourself and feel like it's alright to feel good about yourself again.
There isn't any one reason or cause, just that feeling of powerlessness, lots of things that aren't happening, or at least not the way you hoped, or wanted them to.
Honestly some guys have issues with self esteem because of bad parenting or abuse by an authority figure. How would you feel if someone said you were a mistake or that your birth mother put you up for adoption because she didnât love you and your father wasnât even named on the birth certificate. Or that she shouldâve had an abortion.
Also that because you have autism even if youâre high functioning (like I am) you get called a f@#king retard and the teacher and school administrators do nothing
So you get do depressed you slice up your arms.
And you canât tell your adopted parents because of how upset they would get.
That will destroy an ego and self esteem
I should probably be in therapy quite honestly
Iâm speaking from personal experience
Men bash the shit out of each other on a daily basis. Most males I know with fragile egos carry it over from childhood baggage. Told they were stupid as a child, have to always prove they are smart as an adult etc. I really only know a handful who have a fragile ego. I think most of the time when women think males have a fragile ego is when they don't agree with them. Woman says something and a man disagrees with her then he must be disagreeing because he has a fragile ego and can't handle the truth. The reality of that is that the woman has an ego and she can't possible be wrong on said matter and by disagreeing you only prove in her mind how fragile the male ego is.
Depends on how your brought up, if you had a mentor to help with the lifestyle you would like, if you just don't care (usually do about a couple aspects), if you are normally boosted or tore down, depends on who it is, because I have a mixed ego but when you try everyway people suggests and you have been told that you are a catch, or been told you're what they're looking for and still been rejected for the position or advice or friendship. Eventually you will not have that ego to be like hey I can do this. The confidence in yourself, you will always feel that I am not going to be chosen and just yeah I will try but I'm not going to believe it until much more get behind you. I feel like I should elaborate on something, but just let me know what confusion is had...
If even in a hobby or interest he is skilled at that he comes across someone that makes even his expertise look like child's play. That happened to me one day when I tried a particular type of stance and punch technique in martial arts for a class that was being taught even with my strong interest in the martial arts disciplines, which I know has nothing to do with ego, but that really made me feel defenseless and helpless afterwards, but guess what, that right there gave me one of the biggest wakeup calls in a while that I have had happen to me, and I hope to never feel like that ever again, because that right there was quite scary.
When a bunch of girls whisper to each other, point at you and laugh.
This has probably happened to me at least once in my life, but I've blotted it from my memory. When chicks get in a herd, they can be pretty cold-hearted.
Besides girls,... when a "herd" of guys do the same, usually over a lack of athletic prowess.
A fragile ego is usually one that's built out of false pretenses and self-delusions. Narcissists have this one down to a science. One little slight to a narcissist leads to them lashing out because you bring reality crashing down on their delusions of grandeur.
Lack of success in any area that's important to you.
Males I know, that's most often due to body image issues or their rate of success with women. I imagine some guys it's their financial status or respect level at work ⊠but tbh I don't know those guys.
If the guy had higher expectations of himself than he has been able to live up to. I think that a lot of guys want to believe that they can live up to a high level of excellence in life; certainly higher than those people around them. When that doesn't happen, or even worse; when the people around them succeed where they failed; that insecurity fills into every aspect of their life where things are going well.
Accurate
Plus many of these guys were TOLD they would receive great things in life.
@coastisclear I know a few guys who got that pep talk growing up. I think it makes people weak to hear all that
It was done with good intentions but itâs not reality. Encourages complacency. My mother was notorious wrong about this. She kept telling that âone day a perfect woman will come into my lifeâ. She completely failed to understand that dating is different and much more difficult for men. She was born beautiful so she was able to get through live with her naive bs. My dad unfortunately seconded her.
If I ever have a kid, especially a son Iâll be loving but honest. Tell him not to trust anyone and to put his own goals first before a womanâs wishes. Tell him to be on his guard. Tell him to get his validation out of life and not women.
It's what society as subjected to be them like women have to be sensitive and guys have to be strong and if he shows his emotions he is not a man. So these kind of fake man made societal idiocracy and illogical philosophies has made both men and women life miserable in this modern era
Women's egos are fragile too. I know plenty of girls that accuse their boyfriends of rape because they were dumped. Both sexes have egos and the way they show their aggression is different. A girl can't hurt her ex-boyfriend by punching him (chances are he's bigger than her), so she'll do it another way.
You know what's worse? A guy is guilty until proven innocent in such cases, except where the reputation of the girl for doing such things precedes her.
When they don't feel useful.
A lot of the value men put on themselves come from whether or not they are appreciated or needed by society or the people around them. Helping out, solving problems, protecting, providing, things like that. If we never get the chance to do that, for whatever reason, it will break us mentally.
My husband I can tell feels this way. He always wants to hop in in front of me to fix something. Or I'll take care of it kind of attitude. But at the same time he leaves me no credit at all... he always has to be the one who came up with it, or who was right or who said it first kind of thing.. which leaves me feeling useless...
There are a few things. Failure is a big one. Tragedy, like the loss of a parent, sibling or spouse. Low self esteem. Basically things that will break a man..
That's just the nature of it.
It's an outgrowth the expectation.
If you have more expectations and higher demands placed on you then the balance of all those things becomes volatile and smaller disturbances jeopardize one's standing much more.
It's not like it reflects poorly on men though. The mistake often made is seeing it more as a failing of men rather than just the nature of the beast.
Think of the ego as a structural beam. And sitting onto of that beam is all of society's expectations that they have for men. It's not that we have fragile egos ladies it's that they are constantly bieng stressed to just below the breaking point so when you heap your shit onto us it breaks the beam
For someone who hashtags herself on almost all of her posts and always uses her own pictures in them, it's kind of ironic for you to be talking about anyone's ego.
You only have to look at the most well-known weak insecure boys... sexists and racists.
Dull-witted, over-compensating children who hate women/minorities because they dislike themselves so much.
Maybe they got rejected by women too much or they were intimidated by a black guy and never recovered from either
Anything that would make any humans ego fragile? Stupid people, disrespectful people, bullies, life hitting you with negativity. I'm sure à lot of us experienced one of these. Some people may not really experience it at all. Everyone gets affected differently. Most of the time we get out of that mood. Other times some thing keeps it lingering.
Mostly the same sorts of things that make women insecure too. We are all human, after all, and we all know women are at least as insecure as men.
So, as a woman, why don't you tell us the answer?
Being âshoved in the friend zoneâ. I can totally accept that attraction isnât a choice. But when just assume that Iâm okay (without saying anything/playing dumb) with just being friends since Iâm a ânice guyâ itâs a huge insult.
Past trauma, usually. They've had some really bad experiences that they never truly got over and may never get over.
When he gets puffed up to think he is highly minded because he gets too many compliments, then realizes that he wasn't as sharp thinking as he was expected.
A lot of mothers baby their sons well into adulthood.
That's so true I have a friend like that now he can't do anything on his own
@bklynbadboy1some women do their sons a huge disservice
@Cherokeehp That's so true they make there sons codependent and that really sad
Oh, besides women, oh... Well I wouldn't know then, sorry
My ego took a hit when one of the women I dated left me for a guy that smacked her. I have no idea what caused her to go to this guy, I still try to figure that out every so often.
I think it's because of a deep mental illness, and by the way I remembered a much horrible story a guy wrote it before in an app, he was married and have kids and his "wife" left him (her husband) and her "kids" and went on a relationship with a drug dealerđ€Šââïžđ€Šââïžđ€Šââïžđ€Šââïžđ€Šââïž
Over confidnce and peope pierce it they shatter like glass
By weak people everything. By strong people nothing. By in between it depends on the guy. There is really no universal thing in my opinion and I myself can think of none, cause it's just too far.
I don't know what makes women think their egos are any less fragile then men's. From my experience, they are far more fragile. I can insult a man all day and he'll laugh it off, but one insult to a woman and she's freaking out
The biggest clitoris encountered is bigger than a micro-penis. My little brother has one. I mean a micro-penis. No mega-clitoris. 🤣
If you insult their height, say their voice is higher pitched, dick size etc typical manly things upset them
Being stupid enough to compare themselves to others rather than striving to be their own personal best.
Exactly. True self confidence isn't believing you're better than others it's realizing there's no reason to compare yourself to others
Men who have been around confrontational situations in which they are challenged by others for prolonged periods of time typically have their guard higher. Itâs a natural defense mechanism.
When he loses confidence in himself... I'm assuming...
Rejection, probably. Or just a complete lack of female attention altogether.
There isn't a 'cause'. A guy's ego is his man card. Why do you want to take him down?
Guys that are insecure with themselves. So I would say insecurity and lack of comprehension that the world does not revolve around them.
Stress! Is the only thing I can think of... I don't know my ego and state of mind pretty much stays balanced!
Besides: sticks and stones... pfft!
I don't know, it's usually women complaining about when men are better than them. (wage gap, % of CEO's, % of engineers)
it's almost same in men/women.
Ego has no gender. it depends on mindset of people.
you can't broke my ego. I am highly assertive about this.
*break
@DashboardLight :D thank you grammar nazi <3
@DashboardLight unfortunately not :)
@DashboardLight even monkeys fall from tree gozaimasu
Never being hurt or shattered or shook before. Thats why its good to get your ass beat a few times. It really does build character.
Not gonna give away the boysâ weaknesses
The fear of being vulnerable I supposed. Men are socialized into being utterly terrified of it.
Because all men are ego driven. Some more than others.
If they get called a sissy for not being "manly" enough.
For me it was being emotionally and verbally abused by my father
The inability to acquire money.
Bad life experiences.
Excessive broken heart of reality.
rejection for me
Some men have higher ambitions than possibilities.
I'd say past trauma.
Bad gas...
Absolutely!
This ego thing is not something I have ever suffered from. I go in the other direction, âcould give a shit attitudeâ.
Thanks Wow ;)
HA! Thanks again ;)
Their penis size. 😂
i am immune to that.
Being mentally and physically bullied by a female
Weak pathetic men
Everyone has a fragile ego, including women
Having nothing to his name.
Comment on their penis size.
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