So ‘real men’ don’t cry any more?

Of course real men cry - unless we just don't feel like it.

I had a whole bunch crying with laughter at one of my birthday bashes recently.

Does that count?

I think everyone needs a good cry every now and again. My ex use to cry every time he saw me cry and that didn't make him any less of a man.
I truly wish men weren't so afraid to cry, because if I didn't have a good cry once in a while, I think I'd explode from all the built up emotions.
The father of my son once told our son that big boys don't cry and I nearly ripped his head off!
The man was 8 years old when his mother died and his father told him not to cry at her funeral, so you'd think the man would know better.

When I cried in front of him, he would either laugh at me or call me a baby.

Real bastard that guy was!

Ok, I'll stop now

I'm at this point not so persuaded by a column, and haven't read this one.

Sure, real men cry. By tears and other ways.

Crying isn't the only expression of wailing.

I'd rather see tears than fists.

It qualifies, dlowan. You're a real man, and a swell guy.

I'll read this, back in a bit.

OK, I read it fast.

Is that what you think, Reyn? Or just reporting the article? If so, can you comment on the article?






I'm still trying to absorb Dlowan, a woman many of us near revere except we don't do that to each other, as a guy.
What is that all about? Lots of resentment.

Anyone want to talk about it?

I think he meant real woman and a swell person.


Or not.


If not he'd better watch it.

The Rat.

How can one tell?

OK, ok, he has a dry sense of humor.

...

backing off, trying to stuff hackles into sack, tripping over them, wondering where the ice cream is.

Read article, think it's hilarious.


Conclusion?


Real men laugh, cry, and most of the other things people generally do.

I truly haven't had a male friend who gives a **** about whether he's seen as a "real man" or not for decades. The last one who did specialized in "I'm a sensitive fella not like the rest" as a sleep with me line.

Real men give up their seats to someone old and or frail or someone with a babe in arms and such, just like I do.


Real men wear their hair as they like it, or sometimes as their partner likes it, like I do (actually, I don't really, cos I don't like it really long myself.)

Real men open doors when it makes courteous sense to, just like most polite people do.

If they fancy a woman who wants hectic scrambles to get to the door first so they can open it for her, everything paid for her, and a heap of other "chivalrous" nonsense above and beyond the courtesy and care we should all show for each other, and especially for those we love or want to get into bed with, then it's on their head if they are daft enough to do it.


If we are really absolutely programmed into gender behaviour by evolution and hormones then anything we damned well do is what real men and women do, since our condition is inevitable and inescapable, and nobody has any business telling us what our biology determines us to do since we are, perforce, doing it already. Including, presumably, being homosexual, and liking face cream and hogging remotes if we are guys, and kick starting our vibrators and rolling our own tampons and shopping for shoes if we are women.


Oddly enough, we all seem to want to all sorts of odd things as well as whatever the current context has deemed is womanly or manly for the nonce and whatever our biology actually does more or less determine for us.

retrosexual, heh

hadnt heard of this new trend yet at all, so must be very new..

You tell 'em, Rabbit!

Nice to see some interest in this topic. Thanks to everyone who has posted so far.

My stance on this article is this:

I'm always puzzled when something like this comes up, like if being a "real man" (I absolutely hate that term) is something that goes in and out of fashion. I think along the same terms as Deb's post a couple or so up.

To me what was always important was just being a decent human being, and all that that entails. Actually, I live my life that way, which is why I'm not religious in the traditional sense of the word.

If anything, I find that I cry much easier now than when I was younger. I see a soppy movie and I get all choked up.

I think one should not be something that you don't feel comfortable being, or because it's the "in" thing to do. Do it because you feel it's the right thing to do.

Absolutely, Reyn. Do it because it's the right (and considerate) thing to do.

In today's world, that IS chivalry.

This word is setting off my gaydar....

What I always wonder is, how do these silly trends start?

One day, perhaps at a party, someone decides these things and others follow like sheep?

We also need a better system of keeping the members of the club up-to-date.

I never received the memo that we were allowed to cry in the first place. I've been sobbing alone in the toilet.

Wait... I'm not allowed to say that, now, am I?

You just did.

Could you take the sobbing out of the toilet, please? The real men are trying to do some real manly things in there.