![]() Tears have a very important function in your body. It’s clear that men need access to more mental health support - which may start with society accepting and supporting men when they cry. Men are also two to three times more likely to have a substance use disorder when compared with women, and suicide is a leading cause of death among men. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that more than 6 million men are affected by depression in the United States every year. Increased mental health awareness has also contributed to this shift. More recently, with the beginning of fourth-wave feminism and increasing discourse around toxic masculinity and mental health stigma, many people are starting to believe that it should be acceptable for men to cry. But for a while, stoicism was - and arguably still is - seen as important to masculinity, while crying and emotional vulnerability are associated with femininity. It’s not entirely clear what changed our attitudes toward men crying. Even in major religious texts, prophets were frequently depicted as weeping. From medieval knights to the soldiers in Homer’s “Iliad” to the samurai in the Japanese epic “The Tale of the Heike,” crying was associated with strength and virtue. In fact, in some cases, crying was seen as noble. Social responses to men crying can vary from culture to culture, but they’ve also changed over time.Īs a 2015 Aeon essay points out, history is full of weeping men.
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