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For years, Wil S. Hylton had been drawn to his cousin\u2019s strength and violence. He was pulled in by the archetype that he embodied and was envious of the power he seemed to command.\n\nWil describes his relative\u2019s violence as \u201cambient\u201d and \u201cendemic,\u201d but he was sure it wouldn\u2019t turn on him. Until a few years ago, when his cousin tried to kill him.\n\n\u201cMy attraction to my cousin and my detachment as a husband both reside in the pantheon of male tropes,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMasculinity is a religion. It\u2019s a compendium of saints: the vaunted patriarch, the taciturn cowboy, the errant knight, the reluctant hero, the gentle giant and omniscient father.\u201d\n\nOn today\u2019s Sunday Read, Wil\u2019s wide-ranging exploration of masculinity.\n\nThis story was written by Wil S. Hylton and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.