Abstract
Manhood has traditionally been defined not only in terms of what “real” men should do, but also in terms of what a real man would not be caught doing. Inexpressiveness is one of the characteristics of males which has traditionally been defined in negative terms. An expressive male is simply one who has feelings and verbally expresses them. An inexpressive male is one who does not verbally express his feelings, either because he has no feelings or because he has been socialized not to. Another way to think of inexpressiveness is as the lack of affective self-disclosure (see Chapter 16, by Dosser).
Another thing I learned—if you cry, the audience won’t. A man can cry for his horse, for his dog, for another man, but he cannot cry for a woman. A strange thing. He can cry at the death of a friend or a pet. But where he’s supposed to be boss, with his child or wife, something like that, he better hold’em back and let them cry. John Wayne1
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Balswick, J.O. (1982). Male Inexpressiveness. In: Solomon, K., Levy, N.B. (eds) Men in Transition. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4211-3_6
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