Many men are emotionally unable to accept things like this. I think the reasoning goes like

• i'm a good person
• i like my hobby
• someone is saying bad things about my hobby
• this makes me feel bad, so it must be false
• furthermore, the person bringing it up is attacking me

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief_perseverance

Facts don't matter. There's really nothing you can do if you're not someone they like.

I also think about this comic a lot: https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1151.html - Some people are too cowardly to grow.