In Gretel Ehrlich's "About Men", she quotes her friend Ted Hoagland: "No one is as fragile as a woman but no one is as fragile as a man" (3). She also states that "If a rancher or cowboy has been thought of as a "man's man" –laconic, hard-drinking, inscrutable—there's almost no place in which the balancing act between male and female, manliness and femininity, can be more natural. If he's gruff, handsome, and physically fit on the outside, he's androgynous at the core. Ranchers are midwives, hunters, nurturers, providers, and conservationists all at once. What we've interpreted as toughness—weathered skin, calloused hands, a squint in the eye and a growl in the voice—only masks the tenderness inside" (2). Explore the theme of stereotypes and/or duality in Ehrlich's essay. What do you think Ehrlich means by this fragility or this "balancing act"? Can you think of ways stereotypes carry over into your own life?