1 of 1- inmyarms
- Godlike
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- From: Brooklyn, NYC
- Registered: May 23, 2013
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men crying: European vs American?
Is it true or just my mistake that European men are much more comfortable crying than American men are, Englishmen excluded of course? But Romanian, Italian, European on general you will see men crying easily and openly at funerals, at films, in America it's fat less common.why do you reckon this is? Any European dudes here wanna venture a guess?
Tears are the last gift of true love.
- caircair
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Re: men crying: European vs American?
I suspect it may be cultural. The British have that whole "stiff upper lip" thing, and the Americans are taught it isn't "manly" to cry. So, yes, I also think Europeans are more comfortable crying.
However, I can't say they are more frequent criers. That appears to be based on the individual. Some men are just more likely to tear up than others.
Which reminds me, I have to try and find the clip of Tom Hiddleston on the red carpet at the Thor movie. A reporter asked him how it felt knowing he'd made his last Marvel picture, and the actor teared up.
"We have our stalking memories, and they will demand their rightful tears."
Anonymous
- flatter
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Re: men crying: European vs American?
I am european and I live in a country where 4 different languages are spoken. I live in the german speaking part, which is the biggest, then there is french, italian and rumantsch (which is the smallest part).
I see the difference in crying from north to south. The farer you get to the south the more willing are men to show their tears. They have a different temperament in the south, not well balanced but welling up with emotion, not always easy to deal with.
I see a lot of people in my profession and many times these people deal with something difficult in their life, where tears are shed.
I make an example: if it is an italian speaking man coming by with his daugther, having a problem, he is more willing to cry than a german speaking father. Of course there are differences between people and populations, there are also german fathers crying in front of somebody else but it is more likely to have a french or italian speaking father sheding tears. There are also differences in the german speaking population: in my opinion "real germans" are more likely to shed tears than other german speaking people.
We have al lot of "real germans" working where I live and I witnessed several events when a male colleague broke out in tears. It is just my personal experience, maybe somebody else saw something else than I did.
- TorNorth
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Re: men crying: European vs American?
I always thought the Northern Europeans in general are far more emotionally conservative than pretty much everyone else. I think it differs in terms of North and South as well as East and West (taking account of the whole world). With North and West being more conservative in terms of crying.
Ugly crying is pretty crying
- meantangerine
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Re: men crying: European vs American?
flatter wrote:
We have al lot of "real germans" working where I live and I witnessed several events when a male colleague broke out in tears. It is just my personal experience, maybe somebody else saw something else than I did.
Oooh! Can we have details?
I'm afraid I don't have much to contribute to this discussion since I've lived my whole life in the northeast US. I've traveled to Europe several times (Italy and Germany), but unfortunately I didn't witness any male crying while I was there. Just my american boyfriend crying over skype because he missed me.
I'd guess that American men are somewhat more willing to cry than English men, but perhaps less willing than Italians or Spaniards. This is all based on stereotypes, of course, because that's all I have haha.
It is such a secret place, the land of tears.
-- Antoine de Saint Exupery, "The Little Prince"
- flatter
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Re: men crying: European vs American?
Well, it is already a few years ago. I was working at the emergency departement in a hospital. One evening a little girl about 5 or 6 years was admitted after a minor car accident. The car accident itself was not very serious but she underwent some examinations to make sure she doesn't have any internal bleeding or lacerations. It was an italian girl with his whole family, she was an only child and there must have been mother, father and some grandparents. They came in already devastated, nobody but the girl should be examined, they were just worried about the girl, not about themselves. The emergency departement doesn't have real rooms but just appartements separated by curtains and you can hear everything. It was like at a funeral: the family was standing around this little girl, lying on a stretcher moaning and praying, very special for us. I made an ultrasound examination later on and just the father was with the girl. He was sitting in the dark room, sniffing and sobbing quietly and tears were streaming down his face. I don't remember exactely if he wiped them because it is such a long time ago. It turned out, that the girl was perfectly healthy, not a single scratch and the familiy was verry greatful. Maybe it was also the incidence which produced such an amount of sorrow