Why males are not supposed to cry?

When I was little, I often can’t help cry. Sometimes I just could not hold my emotion and cried. For example, when I saw some moving movies or when I was bullied by other children, I would cry. When I grow bigger, I started to know that males are not supposed to cry. It’s a gender role. At that time, I just followed the role and always stayed clam no matter what happened. Even something which really hurt my feeling, I would just raise my head, looking up the sky and hold back my tears. However, I never asked why males were not supposed to cry.

There never be any rules in laws or others that forbids males to cry, but the gender rule that tells males not to cry. Crying is considered a kind of weakness, and a signal of doing nothing but waiting for help. Males should be tough and dependent, which is a sentence that I was told by my dad repeatedly during my childhood. When facing trouble or losing temper, males should control their emotions and find ways to solve them. Also, males are supposed to help and protect their female partner. Consider, how can a crying man help others? He can’t even help himself.

I don’t consider this gender rule as a bad one for males. At least for me, whenever I face difficulties or nearly lose my temper, I will encourage myself and tell myself that I am a man, and I need to figure a way to overcome the obstacles. It helps to deal with challenges over and over.