Mr Retro wrote:
I bet you anything that is why men die on average several years before women because they are expected to stifle their emotions and feelings.
Without wanting to sound too much like 90's GQ new/ sensitive metrosexual man- I think you're probably right Tom. Men do have a problem with it, and it's probably not always that healthy for them to repress it as often as they do. I'm kind of in two places over the whole issue. One one level I agree with the notion that sometimes it's just kind of irritating when people get over emotional for no reason and just cry- as if it's something very profound when sometimes it isn't. That irritates me as well. But on the other hand I have to say I'm pretty emotional as a person, and I do cry at certain things. Certain pieces of music can easily move me to tears, and I have the same with certain films. I just try to hide it if I'm in public. Though I'm not afraid to openly cry in front of a female, or close friends, in private. That doesn't really bother me at all and never has. But I know my father's generation can also even have a problem with that. But the irony is- I still hate the idea of it in public with myself, and I almost never do it in front of my male friends- unless it's over something very significant. It's kind of stupid because I can quite easily get moved to tears- so why should you be bothered about it, or the stigma? I dunno. I think it's just the way it is, even if it's stupid.
Incidentely... just to show how men can be screwed up about the the concept- particularly my father's generation. I've never really seen my Dad cry, ever. Not once- apart from one time. Not when my gran died, or his father died, or even when he got cancer- and there was a strong possibility he might die, or when my Mum got cancer years later- and she might die... or over anything else at all! The only time I have ever seen him cry, and loose control a bit, was when our cat (that we'd had for years when I was growing up) died! He couldn't handle it somewhere. It's slightly ridiculous. I had to take the afternoon off work to help him take the cat to the vet to have it put down- the poor thing was very sick at the time. He just lost it somewhere and didn't know what to do. He was so chocked up he didn't really know where to park the car when we got to the vet, or when we got home. The thing that struck me, as a piece of irony, was that he phoned me at work that day and said he'd decided to do it and needed my help- but I also wasn't allowed to tell my Mum- in case she got upset! The irony, of course, was that- when my Mum did find out after she got home from work- she was ok with it and not that upset. She thought it was the sensible thing to do. The reason why? Like myself and my brother, she'd already gotten a little upset already, gone through the emotional process of it over time, and knew it had to happen. Whereas my Dad couldn't handle it somewhere....but he also thought he was trying to protect everyone- mainly my Mum- at the same time! The truth is, he was just projecting his own inability to deal with it onto everyone else- and this is a guy whose spent his entire life climbing up erupting volcanoes in the middle of nowhere, on some Godforsaken part of the planet, for a living...! I love my Dad, but Man- that's a little messed up. As sweet as it may sound. You also kind of think at the same time- would he be as openly upset if one of us died? Of course he would inside- but he'd also bottle it up and never show it. However, he could do that with the bloody cat...! That's messed up! But there you go- that's that generation of men... Us male Gen X'rs are still messed up with that kind of thing when it comes to showing our emotions, but perhaps a little less so than the previous generation....Maybe it's just a progression...
Don't mess with the Bunny.
Um methinks this was a whole set up to make 'good television' cough.. but it does leave us with the question ... what do we think about guys shedding the waterworks?.gif "Big Grin")
.gif "Cry")
