Brave

by Rose McGowan

You may think that what happens in Hollywood doesn’t affect you. You’re wrong. My darlings, who do you think is curating your reality? Who is showing you who and what you want to be?

I’m only talking about this to help others who may also suffer from the mean blues, as I call them. What I know now is that you should not be afraid to seek medical help for mood problems.

Men are born into such a narrow idea of what they are supposed to be. Snore. I can see this in my own life, with my father. He was raised on this steady diet of John Wayne films by his macho Korean War–fighting dad. His dad told him that a real man doesn’t cry, a real man doesn’t complain, a real man, a real man, a real man . . . ad infinitum. “Go watch John Wayne, you’ll never see him be weak. Ever.” How many men grew up with this false idea of strength? For years Hollywood has been responsible for showing men how to be this bullshit ideated version of themselves. It’s time to knock that one down.