Why men can’t cry

By Divyanshu Shekhar Jha

“It is the hypocrisy of this society, which lets a man laugh but not cry.” – Nitya Prakash

In our patriarchal society if a woman cries it’s taken as their emotions, and if men break down not a spare second society takes to make fun of them because men are picturised as strong and a protector of their families.

Since childhood, boys were taught to suppress their emotions and if they cry everyone will mock them by calling them ‘Crybaby’ .

We live in a society where women are allowed to express their feelings because they are considered emotionally sensitive, but if men do so, they are considered weak.

From a famous book, The Tale of the Heike, we can see that crying was associated with strength and virtue.

Crying is an expression of feelings. If boys always hide or avoid their emotions this can have damaging consequences on their mental health in future.

‘’Boys don’t cry” is a phrase used by everyone and has negative stereotypical expectations, which put pressure on young boys to prove their masculinity to their peers.

Now awareness of mental health day by day has brought the attention of society towards this topic.

We can see this topic getting normalised after Swiss Superstar Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were crying after winning the 7th Wimbledon title and said, “It’s fine for grown men to cry. To show you are human, that your heart can be broken too”.

When India lifted the World Cup after 28 years, emotions were running high on the field Yuvraj Singh, Man of the Series, showed that tough guys do shed tears after living and fulfilling the billion people’s prayers and wishes.

Now with the passage of time, social media influencers are also talking about it through their videos and bringing awareness in society that men also have the right to show their emotions and they can cry on failures, heartbreak and so on.

Parents should teach their children either boy or girl, to share their emotions and feelings so that mental health issues like depression can be coped with or changes in the old social norms and beliefs can be made. Let’s come forward and make sure both men and women are treated equally in society.