Yuck. Sounds like someone who paid attention in a "History of Psychology Before 1940" class. I REALLY hope this wasn't someone licensed to practice. That's someone with whom to avoid discussions on the topic in the future.
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However people want to explain it, when I look in the mirror and see a stern, male face, or if I don't and imagine how manly and hard I must look as I'm called sir, man etc, I conform to stereotype because that's all I know, I become hard and rough in my behaviour, the whole "If you see a man, I'll give you a man". So I behave like I'm being annoyed all the time.
Oh, does this ever sound familiar. Back when I worked, 'cranky' would be a good starting description for my office personality. I was unpleasant, to the point of driving people away from me, or being very off putting. A real analyst fingered this pretty well. I was running a male persona to hide behind, and as part of avoiding discovery of ME hiding in there, I pushed others away with a gruff appearance.
It was a defensive mechanism, one of many I used to avoid being 'found out' as not a real male, but something else trying to pass as one.
Unfortunately, this whole 'hiding behind the male persona' thing, along with fear of discovery and loss of connections I had made based on the lie, pretty much put me in a permanent state of shame. That's corrosive.
I corroded all the way through 6 months ago, and got help, initially from a last ditch hotline call, then from therapy, and found how to dismantle the male persona and just be myself. I'm getting better.
