Men who show emotion?...how are they usually portrayed? They are soft, insecure, babies, and the list goes on. But the fact is men who show emotions or cry publicly are seen as losers. Are they?
The perceptions we have of men who cry or show emotion publicly are often times culturally driven. Some cultures simply do not accept men who cry or show emotions. Growing up where I'm from it was definitely not accepted for a man to cry unless someone died. On one rare occasion that I was spending a weekend with my father, I fell down a flight of stairs and broke my ankle. I can still remember my dad telling me to walk on it and not to cry. I guess from that point on It was engrained in me that as a man I was not to cry under any circumstances. It was not until much later when my daughter was born, that I was actually able to cry in front of others.
Is this attitude shared across the world? Clearly it isn't. For some reason in this country we believe that men who show emotions are weak. It is however, the opposite, those men who actually show emotions are strong men. Women will tell you that if a man is strong enough to show his emotions publicly they will respect him even more. It does not benefit a person to have emotions stored up and not have the boldness to express them. That is what we do when we degrade a guy for crying or showing emotion, we are stifling his emotional and psychological development.
The media plays a part in pushing this culture of allowing men who show emotions to feel like wimps. They support having men always exude a presence of power. It is always shown in a negative light or as a weakness whenever a man shows true genuine emotion in public.
Times have changed since I was growing up. I have been more open with my child and I have allowed him to show emotion and express himself. I also let him know that it's not OK to cry about everything that is disappointing, but he must be able to express himself by crying at certain times. I hope this culture continues to mature and men who show emotions will be seen as normal. It won't be that he is a man touching his feminine side, No he will just be a man.
I hear you, if someone dies a man gets a pass to cry all they want, or when their child is born another pass, even if your favorite team loses the championship game but to cry over pain, or job loss, money troubles, stress,or something else better be done by yourself out of view of others.
ReplyDeleteYou said it there bro. Men have to have a legit reason to even think about crying. Sometime you just need to let it out. We all have stressful situations and we all handle them different. Its not a sign of weakness if you choose to cry.
ReplyDeleteWell said! I just had an infuriating conversation with my parents about this exact thing. I'd hate for them to make my son feel bad about himself for showing his emotions.
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