The male stereotype makes masculinity not just a fact of biology but something that must be proved and re-proved, a continual quest for an ever-receding Holy Grail

His masculinity was only too apparent

She's achieved a certain kind of serenity. She didn't used to listen much. She knew what she should do and went about it. Now she listens.

She's strong, and looking at things as positively as possible.

...enslaved black males were socialized by white folks to believe that they should endeabor to become patriarchs by seeking to attain the freedom to provide and protect for black women, to be benevolen patriarchs. Benevolent patriarchs exercise their power without using force. And it was this notion of patriarchy that educated black men coming from slavery into freedom sought to mimic. However, a large majority of black men took as their standard the dominator model set by white masters. When slavery ended these black men often used violence to dominate black women, which was a repetition of the strategies of control white slave masters used.

I doubt the masculinity of a man whose manliness is reflected in a women's wound.