This is way too true.

Yeah, I'm generally pretty stoic. I've probably cried in movies about a hundred times more than I've cried in real life. By the time I hit high school it took a lot to get me to express any anger. If anything, my dispassion has been something that I've been criticized for.

Still, it's just true that the reaction to a man crying isn't the same as the reaction to a woman crying. I also don't think that the reaction should be the same. I do believe that men and women have different roles (so shoot me). Still, men shouldn't be mocked or, in my case, vilified by some people for getting emotional.

Particularly in the case of Will Smith, I sympathize. Notice that I said "sympathize" and not "empathize" because my last long term relationship ended due to some extracurricular fucking on her part and she was the one who ended the relationship.

I was met by an onslaught by almost everybody in our friend circles because if I showed even a hint of anger and she started crying, I immediately became the bad guy even with people who knew the context.

It's nice for some people to encourage men to open up emotionally; but, men who have been around the block once or twice know that most people don't want that even if they think they do. It's part of a man's life to absorb the emotions of others and bury his own. I've accepted that and I've trained myself to do that as well as I can.