Men Cry Too
The stigma tied to men and emotions
Today, I am grateful for emotional freedom. I am thankful that I can allow myself to feel my feelings without attempting to numb, deny or stuff them. There has been a stigma attached to men and emotions for a long time. From a very young age, society taught me that it was unnatural for me as a male to express my emotions.
I have always been a pretty emotionally sensitive dude, so I was constantly shamed and ridiculed for expressing any sort of emotionality as I grew up. Except anger, in my experience it always seemed to be accepted or at least expected that men regularly express themselves through anger and violence.
I have found that anger is a secondary emotion and many times it comes when our other emotions are being suppressed or ignored. How freaking screwed up is it that we have been telling our young men that it is not okay to express themselves and how they feel unless it is done in a way that doesn’t expose their vulnerability and in turn make us feel uncomfortable? It’s no wonder that women live longer, healthier lives than men on average. Stress kills. And what could be more stressful than never being able to fully express yourself?
Anyways, I don’t have to live that way today and for that I am extremely grateful. I am also super grateful for all of the parents who have chosen to avoid the pesky stigma and raise all of their children, regardless of gender, with the emotional freedom of expressing their feelings fully and teaching them to work through them in a healthy manner.
