I’m not so sure this has anything to do with masculinity. The women are very strong on the show. Rumple we know is strong with magic, Charming has his sword fighting abilities, heck even Robin has his bow and arrow. And we’ve seen Belle kick some butt too. But Neal has no fighting skills. And that’s fine. Not all men need to be tough, but I just feel in a world with magic, it would be hard for him to survive because literally everyone other than maybe Henry have some sort of strength they can use. If you were ok with Neal sitting back in the background like an Archie character or a dwarf then fine. But the main players are all very strong. Neal is a strong person in his own way. But the ability to defend and fight I feel he was lacking. For me, he felt out of place in a land with magic in storybrooke.
Neal did fine with the fighting. He had a sword and a crossbow. He was no less ridiculous then Emma is with her knife or Snow has been with her bow or even Charming with his sword. Neal was shown to be no less capable because this show has never been about action fights. All of the characters flourish their weapons too much and the fights look unrealistic at best. I thought the way Neal went into Pan’s camp and had put magic on the arrow because he knew that Pan would catch it and then he would be trapped was pretty awesome.