Salon - 2010: The year of Boehner bawling

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Friday, Dec 31, 2010 11:54 ET
2010: The year of crying men
The past year was one replete with Boehner-style bawling
By DAN SEWELL, Associated Press

http://www.salon.com/life/gender_roles/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/12/31/us_year_of_tears



When pro football player Cedric Benson led his Cincinnati Bengals to a long-awaited victory that ended a 10-game losing streak, his eyes grew wet and a tear ran down his cheek as he stood before his locker afterward.

The running back said he felt wonderful, tremendous, joyful. So why the public cry? Relief, strong emotions after a lot of tough times for him and the team, and ... well, why not?

After all, Rep. John Boehner, who lives just north of Cincinnati, wept on national TV the night Republican election victories assured he will be the nation's next speaker of the House. And from the neighboring state to the south, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., choked up as he bid farewell this month to a retiring colleague.

Just a few examples of well-known males turning on the waterworks in a Year of the Tear, four decades after Marvin Gaye sang that "I know a man ain't supposed to cry" and a Democratic presidential contender's campaign foundered under the weight of reports he teared up.

Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie had plans that morning in 1972 to call out the publisher of the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader over criticism of his wife. But reports that he had tears in his eyes -- which Muskie went to his grave insisting were melted snowflakes -- raised questions about whether he could handle crises or stare down the Russians.

"Back in the early '70s, it was male machoism -- men were not supposed to publicly display emotions; it was viewed as a sign of weakness," said Severin Beliveau, an Augusta, Maine, attorney who was a Muskie campaign adviser.

But stoicism gave way over the years to sensitivity as a desirable male trait, and by 2010, there were few fears for tears left among well-known American men.

[cutlassmama]

1. Tan man only cries when it benefits him

[DCKit]

2. Shouldn't that read "2011"?

Sure, it's prophecy, but you can't make a better bet.